Brad Pitt Trademarks

Brad Pitt is an award-winning American actor best known for his roles in movies like Fight Club and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Pitt is considered a pop culture icon and has been covered ad nauseam by the tabloid press due to his marriages and subsequent divorces from two famed actresses, first Jennifer Aniston and then Angelina Jolie.

William Bradley Pitt was born in Oklahoma in 1963. He was raised in Springfield, Missouri with his younger brother and sister. He attended Kickapoo High School where he showed athletic promise and had his first brush with acting, participating in school musicals. He majored in Journalism at the University of Missouri, but did not finish his degree. He left school, inspired by the likes of Sean Penn and Mickey Rourke, to pursue movie acting in Los Angeles, California.

Once in Los Angeles, Pitt took acting lessons and landed a few uncredited roles in films. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, he appeared in numerous television shows including Dallas, Growing Pains and Trial and Error. He received a lot of recognition for his supporting role in the movie Thelma & Louise and got a lot of buzz as a sex symbol for his love scene with Geena Davis. In 1992, Pitt starred in A River Runs Through It, and a year later in Kalifornia. Both movies garnered critical acclaim and positive reviews. He would spend the rest of the 1990’s starring in many successful films including Legends of the Fall, The Devil’s Own, Seven Years in Tibet and many others. Pitt continued to have a brilliant acting career throughout the 2000s, up until the present. He has appeared in numerous guest spots on television shows from Friends to animated King of the Hill as well as countless movies including the Ocean’s series, Troy, 12 Years a Slave and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

Over the years Pitt has been linked with many of his co-stars, but in July of 2000, he married actress Jennifer Aniston. The marriage ended in divorce after just five years.

Pitt was linked to Mr and Mrs.Smith co-star Angelina Jolie and there were accusations of infidelity. In January of 2006, during an interview with People, Jolie confirmed she was pregnant. Pitt and Jolie became engaged years later in April of 2012. Their popularity as a couple was at a near frenzy at that time. Jolie’s custom engagement ring was copied so many times there were discussions about whether or not Pitt should trademark the design and sue over copyright infringement. The couple finally married in August of 2014. Sadly their marriage also ended in divorce in April of 2019. The litigation of their custody case continues and is expected to cost the couple millions of dollars.

Brad Pitt trademarked his own name back in 2011 for entertainment and acting services. Surprisingly, he owns no other trademarks personally. Much of what Pitt has done that may be seen as business is actually under the umbrella of his charity foundation with ex-wife Jolie, the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation, which they started in 2006.

In 1998, Pitt’s image was part of a major trademark lawsuit involving a movie he had been in. In the movie “Seven,” reproductions of some works by Jorge Antonio Sandoval were shown inadvertently prompting a lawsuit about fair use of trademarked property. Pitt wasn’t part of the lawsuit, as Sandoval sued the movie’s production company for copyright infringement. Sandoval lost the suit, and the implications of the outcome were important enough to be sighted in a later lawsuit argued by Disney. Later, in August of 2017, Pitt was sued by French artist and lighting designer Odile Soudant. Soudant had worked on the lighting of a 17th century property known as Château Miraval located close to Aix-en-Provence, France. The artist sued over unpaid bills totaling in the millions of euros and for the rights to be named designer of the work. Pitt’s lawyer disputed her claim as the designer of the project saying that Pitt as well as another designer who worked on the project were largely responsible for the design. The French courts awarded financial damages to Soudant but did not rule on any copyright or trademark issues that were brought up.

During the span of his career, Brad Pitt has been awarded an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards for his acting as well as an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award and a Primetime Emmy Award as a producer. He now owns his own production company, Plan B Entertainment, for which he produces and acts in movies. Pitt resides in Los Angeles and is believed to have a net worth of around $350 million from the movies he has produced and starred in. Although his divorce to actress Jolie is now final, litigation over the custody of their children continues.