{"id":417581,"date":"2026-01-18T15:29:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T15:29:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/417581\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T15:29:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T15:29:12","slug":"apollonia-claims-prince-was-adamant-that-she-keep-using-her-name-amid-trademark-legal-battle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/417581\/","title":{"rendered":"Apollonia claims Prince was \u201cadamant\u201d that she keep using her name amid trademark legal battle"},"content":{"rendered":"

Apollonia has claimed that\u00a0Prince<\/a>\u00a0was \u201cadamant\u201d that she continued\u00a0using her name and trademarks, amid an ongoing\u00a0legal battle\u00a0with his estate.<\/p>\n

Patricia Apollonia Kotero rose to fame in 1984 when Prince chose her to star as his love interest in the semi-autobiographical film\u00a0Purple Rain. She went on\u00a0front\u00a0the group Apollonia\u00a06,\u00a0and\u00a0has used the name Apollonia in her singing and acting career for more than four decades.<\/p>\n

In June last year, Paisley Park Enterprises\u00a0(PPE), the estate overseeing Prince\u2019s business interests\u00a0since his death in 2016<\/a>, filed an \u201cintent-to-use\u201d trademark application for Apollonia and sought to cancel Kotero\u2019s registrations for the name. Two months later, Kotero filed a suit\u00a0against\u00a0PPE, accusing them of trying to \u201csteal\u201d her name<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since then,\u00a0PPE\u00a0have\u00a0disputed her claims and moved to dismiss the lawsuit<\/a>, claiming that their trademark application was\u00a0necessary\u00a0step to protect its rights, not a personal attack.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Now, in a declaration filed in federal court on Friday (January 16), Apollonia has responded to the estate\u2019s motion to dismiss by claiming that she received face-to-face reassurance from Prince two months before his death (via\u00a0Rolling Stone<\/a>).<\/p>\n

She claims that Prince met with her and her fellow Apollonia 6 member Susan Moonsie after a concert in Oakland, California in February 2016.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring our conversations that evening, Prince was adamant that we continue with our ventures such as musical performances, merchandising, and audiovisual projects, and that he wanted us both to use our Apollonia and Apollonia 6 trademarks in order to be able to earn a living, stay creative, and be financially secure in our later years,\u201d Apollonia has said.<\/p>\n

Part of her claim is that Prince never trademarked the Apollonia name while he was alive, so the estate was out of line when it moved to assume control of it last June. Kotero is now asking the court to reject PPE\u2019s request that her lawsuit be dismissed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is none of this litigation would have occurred if Prince were still alive,\u201d Apollonia\u2019s declaration continued. \u201cHe would be appalled by the unbecoming conduct of PPE and the efforts by PPE to usurp his wishes. I do not trust PPE, and I am afraid that if PPE is able to accomplish its goal of taking the Apollonia Marks from me, my identity will be lost, my rights will be diminished, my business will be interrupted, and I will be unable to use the Apollonia marks without repercussion from PPE.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

A hearing on the estate\u2019s motion to dismiss is scheduled for February 13. In their motion, they wrote:\u00a0\u201cDefendant has never threatened to sue plaintiff, never asked her to cease using her adopted stage name, nor ever asked her to cease any of her business activities.\u201d<\/p>\n

Apollonia toured to promote\u00a0Purple Rain\u00a0in\u00a01984\u00a0and Apollonia 6 had a hit later that year with \u2018Sex Shooter\u2019, written and produced by Prince.\u00a0The group also recorded a version of \u2018Manic Monday\u2019 in the same year, but it was pulled before\u00a0release\u00a0and The Bangles had the hit version two years later. Apollonia went on to star in\u00a0Falcon Crest\u00a0on television and released a solo album in 1988.<\/p>\n

Prince died from an accidental fentanyl overdose in April 2016<\/a>, leaving behind no children and no will, leading to a contracted legal battle over his\u00a0extensive\u00a0assets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Apollonia has claimed that\u00a0Prince\u00a0was \u201cadamant\u201d that she continued\u00a0using her name and trademarks, amid an ongoing\u00a0legal battle\u00a0with his estate.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417582,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,75,341,2742],"class_list":{"0":"post-417581","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-pop"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417581","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417581"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417581\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417581"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417581"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417581"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}