Patagonia is taking Pattie Gonia to court.<\/p>\n
The outdoor apparel company is suing the drag queen and environmental activist for trademark infringement, arguing that Pattie Gonia moved away from \u201cdiscrete use of a persona to engage in activism\u201d and \u201ctransformed into a commercial enterprise.\u201d In doing so, Pattie Gonia is causing irreparable harm to Patagonia, the company said in a lawsuit filed in January.<\/p>\n
Mx. Gonia, speaking publicly on social media<\/a> last week for the first time since the lawsuit was filed, said the company was trying to take away their name permanently and \u201cerase an activist,\u201d and called on Patagonia to drop the lawsuit.<\/p>\n The lawsuit will hinge on the role of First Amendment rights and parody in a dispute over a brand name and services, said Nancy J. Mertzel, a trademark lawyer who is not affiliated with the case.<\/p>\n \u201cEven though Patagonia is a very public benefit-minded corporation, they need to protect their assets,\u201d she said. \u201cI think there\u2019s a lot at stake, certainly for Pattie \u2014 as a spokesperson, and as an environmental activist.\u201d<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what to know about the case.<\/p>\n Who is Pattie Gonia?<\/p>\n Pattie Gonia, who was created by Wyn Wiley, said she started out in 2018 when she put on a pair of heels during a backpacking trip, naming the drag persona after the region in South America known for its natural beauty.<\/p>\n Since then, Mx. Gonia has built an online community around a mission of connecting queer people, people of color and lower-income communities with the outdoors, putting on climate-inspired drag shows across the United States. She has more than 1.8 million followers on Instagram and nearly 900,000 on TikTok.<\/p>\n Mr. Wiley also co-founded the Oath<\/a>, an organization that promotes climate solutions and inclusion.<\/p>\n Why is Patagonia suing?<\/p>\n According to Patagonia\u2019s lawsuit, filed in January in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the company met with Mx. Gonia in 2022 and she agreed to restrict her use of the \u201cPattie Gonia\u201d name on fonts or designs that mimic Patagonia\u2019s.<\/p>\n In 2025, the drag queen started selling Pattie Gonia-branded apparel online. Patagonia asked her to stop, the lawsuit said, citing the 2022 agreement. Several months later, Mx. Gonia filed a trademark application, seeking to register the name for clothing, marketing and events.<\/p>\n In a statement posted late Sunday<\/a> after several online statements from Mx. Gonia, Patagonia said they had hoped to avoid a lawsuit.<\/p>\n \u201cWe want to acknowledge any hurt it has caused, especially in the LGBTQ+ community,\u201d the company wrote. \u201cImportantly, we continue to want to resolve this.\u201d<\/p>\n The company said \u201cwe can do that\u201d if Mx. Gonia agreed to three things: removing the trademark applications, ceasing use of the mountain landscape logo and stopping the sale and promotion of apparel and other products as \u201cPattie Gonia.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIf we can agree on this, we can work out everything else, and Pattie Gonia could continue as a performer and activist,\u201d the company wrote. \u201cWe share common ground with them, including the goal of saving our home planet and creating a more inclusive outdoors.\u201d<\/p>\n Pattie Gonia says she is prepared to go to trial.<\/p>\n Mx. Gonia denied ever using the Patagonia brand, logo or font on her merchandise website, and instead argued that \u201cthe lawsuit cherry-picks a few examples of playful parody and fan art and tries to spin those into some kind of vast use of their logo.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat wasn\u2019t a broad agreement about my future,\u201d she said in a recorded social media post<\/a> last week, referring to Patagonia\u2019s claims about a 2022 agreement.<\/p>\n \u201cDrag is built on parody, puns and jokes, but I\u2019m willing to never parody their logo ever again,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n