Case Intel
• The Purple Rain star asks a federal judge to confirm her right to keep using “Apollonia” after the Prince estate moved to cancel her marks and filed its own application.
• “There is only one Apollonia,” she tells the court, pointing to four decades of continuous use across music, film, and podcasting.
• Case is pending in the Central District of California under No. 2:25-cv-07769; early skirmishes will likely center on TTAB records, priority, and whether the estate waited too long to object.
LOS ANGELES, CA – I’ve read enough celebrity-IP fights to know when a dispute is really about leverage, and this one is exactly that. Patricia “Apollonia” Kotero says the Prince estate—through Paisley Park Enterprises—has been trying to claw back the stage name she has used for more than 40 years. Her lawsuit filed Tuesday, August 19, in Los Angeles seeks a declaratory judgment that she, not the estate, owns the APOLLONIA trademarks and can keep using them in entertainment and related ventures. She warns that if the estate succeeds at the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), an infringement suit against her could be next.
