The estate of Prince has asked a federal judge to drop a trademark lawsuit filed by the late singer’s Purple Rain co-star Apollonia, who says the estate is “stealing” her name.
Patricia Apollonia Kotero starred in the late pop icon’s 1984 film Purple Rain as his love interest, who goes by the name Apollonia. As well as releasing a solo album, she featured on the single ‘Take Me With U’ from the album ‘Purple Rain’ and was also lead singer of the girl group Apollonia 6, who were founded by Prince.
Last month, she filed a 14-page complaint against the Prince’s estate, Paisley Park Enterprises, accusing them of “attempting to steal” her name. Kotero alleged that “Prince himself consented to and encouraged Apollonia in her professional endeavours” using that name. Kotero has now used the name for over four decades and released numerous projects under the alias.
Due to this, her legal team alleges in the lawsuit, the estate was out of line when it tried to claim ownership of the Apollonia trademark in June by filing an “intent-to-use” application that would allow it to use the name in connection with clothing and entertainment services.
“All of the goodwill associated with the name and trademark ‘Apollonia’ for the past four decades is attributable to plaintiff,” the artist’s lawsuit states. Soon after the lawsuit was filed, Prince’s estate dismissed it as “frivolous” and “unwarranted”.
In court filings from Wednesday (September 17), Paisley Park Enterprises (PPE) has said that Kotero’s lawsuit was “improperly filed” over “hypothetical threats”, and that it has no intention to stop the artist from continuing to use her stage name, per Billboard.
“PPE has absolutely never insisted that plaintiff cease using Apollonia as her stage name, nor has PPE demanded that plaintiff cease any of her business activities,” wrote L. Londell McMillan, one of the managers of the estate and a legal advisor to Prince.
“I have personally told this to plaintiff several times.”
The filings continued to say that PPE wanted to co-exist with Kotero, and clarified that it only took action at the USPTO because her existing trademark registration on “Apollonia” blocked the estate’s own attempt to secure the rights for “Apollonia 6,” the name of the Prince-founded girl group that Kotero led.
The estate then claimed that Kotero obtained the trademark “during [the] chaotic period following Prince’s death”, and therefore it has grounds to cancel it.
“Following his death, certain people with no ownership interest in Prince’s trademarks registered or applied to register marks that rightfully belonged to Prince,” McMillan writes in the court documents. “These same individuals never attempted such improper actions during Prince’s lifetime.”
In a statement to Billboard, Kotero’s lawyer Daniel M. Cislo said: “Unfortunately, this is another attack on Apollonia’s name which will be dealt with in Apollonia’s favor.” Her attorneys will have chance to respond to the estate’s motion to dismiss in the weeks and months ahead.
Prince died of a fentanyl overdose in 2016. He was 57-years-old.
Earlier this year, Netflix announced that a long-awaited nine-part series exploring the life and career of the music icon had been abandoned, in favour of a new “mutual agreement” with the Prince estate. Instead, the new deal would allow Netflix to “develop and produce a new documentary featuring exclusive content from Prince’s archive”.
Back in March, the director of the axed doc then said it is a “joke” that the streaming giant chose to cancel the project