November 2019. Paisley Park Enterprises, the company that manages the estate of the late singer-songwriter Prince, who died in 2016, is trying to register the colour purple as a trademark in the US for music recordings and performances.

Other purple musicians

The trademark had originally been applied for back in October 2018, but was refused at the time by the United States Patent and Trademark Office on the grounds that there were other artists who used the colour purple to promote their music.

430 pages of evidence

To nevertheless show that the colour purple was indissolubly linked to the work of Prince (notably through his famous number Purple Rain), Paisley submitted 430 pages of evidence demonstrating the singer’s use of the colour purple. Whether it will be enough to obtain an exclusive claim to purple as a trademark is very much the question.

Bas Kist