Apollonia Kotero<\/strong>, the actress and singer forever linked with Prince<\/strong>‘s 1984\u00a0Purple Rain, is taking the singer’s estate to court \u2014 claiming it\u2019s trying to strip her of the name that defined her career.<\/p>\n According to court documents filed on August 19, Kotero, whose full name is Patricia Apollonia Kotero<\/strong>, alleges that Paisley Park Enterprises, which manages Prince\u2019s estate, has been working to \u201ccancel\u201d her trademark applications for the name Apollonia.<\/p>\n \u201cIn fact, Prince himself consented to and encouraged Apollonia in her professional endeavors as \u2018Apollonia,\u2019\u201d the filing states, according to People<\/a>. \u201cIf ever the fundamental principles of fairness \u2013 waiver, acquiescence, and laches apply, they apply here.\u201d<\/p>\n Kotero rose to fame after starring opposite Prince in the cult classic\u00a0Purple Rain. Since then, she has continued to use \u201cApollonia\u201d as her professional identity, attaching it to her music, acting, and more recently, her podcast\u00a0Apollonia Studio 6.<\/p>\n Apollonia Kotero in 2022. (Unique Nicole\/FilmMagic)<\/p>\n \u201cThere is only one Apollonia, and Apollonia is the source of the goods and services provided under this name,\u201d the lawsuit reads. \u201cTherefore, to protect her brand, Ms. Kotero owns several \u2018Apollonia\u2019 trademark applications and registrations.\u201d<\/p>\n She claims Prince\u2019s estate has been fighting her on that front by mounting \u201can aggressive campaign before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (\u2018USPTO\u2019) and Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (\u2018TTAB\u2019), attempting to cancel Apollonia\u2019s trademark registrations and block her applications.\u201d<\/p>\n If the estate succeeds, “it is highly likely Prince\u2019s estate will demand Apollonia cease using her name and, if not, bring a trademark infringement action against her,” the suit claims.<\/p>\n Kotero’s attorney, Daniel Cislo<\/strong>, argued that \u201cPrince and Apollonia were friends, and he wanted her to be successful as Apollonia.\u201d<\/p>\n Cislo added that \u201call of the goodwill associated with the name and trademark \u2018Apollonia\u2019 for the past four decades is attributable to\u201d Kotero.<\/p>\n \u201cA judicial declaration is necessary to determine the respective rights of the parties regarding the asserted APOLLONIA trademarks,\u201d the filing declared.<\/p>\n Prince died in April 2016 at the age of 57. His cause of death was ruled an accidental fentanyl overdose. With no heirs, his estate was divided between his siblings and the publishing company Primary Wave.<\/p>\n Kotero is asking the court to rule that her use of the name “Apollonia” does not infringe on any trademarks tied to the Prince estate \u2014\u00a0and that the estate has no right to interfere with how she promotes or markets her work.<\/p>\n This story was originally reported by Parade<\/a> on Aug 21, 2025, where it first appeared in the News<\/a> section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Apollonia Kotero, the actress and singer forever linked with Prince‘s 1984\u00a0Purple Rain, is taking the singer’s estate to court \u2014 claiming it\u2019s trying to strip her of the name that defined her career. According to court documents filed on August 19, Kotero, whose full name is Patricia Apollonia Kotero, alleges that Paisley Park Enterprises, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1973193,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[351700,21846,351701,351704,351702,351703],"class_list":["post-1973192","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-apollonia-kotero","tag-prince","tag-prince-and-apollonia","tag-purple-rain","tag-trademark-applications","tag-trademark-registrations"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Princes-Estate-Hit-With-Lawsuit-by-Late-Musicians-Former-Purple.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1973192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1973193"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1973192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1973192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1973192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/span><\/div>\n