Patagonia takes on Pattie Gonia in battle over brand name

For eight years Wyn Wiley has been performing as the drag queen Pattie Gonia, who has danced on top of mountains in six-inch heels and once walked 100 miles in full ensemble: wigs, lashes, everything. In outdoorsy communities across the US, Pattie’s rainbow-coloured stickers have become a signal of queerness and allyship.

Those stickers are now the subject of a controversial lawsuit by the outdoor brand Patagonia, which is suing Wiley for trademark infringement. The lawsuit, filed in January, calls for a nominal $1 in damages, plus legal fees. But it is requesting a court order that prevents Wiley from using any branding that resembles its own.

Wiley last week announced his plans to fight the case.

It’s a complex situation for a brand with a reputation as a corporate “good guy”. In 2022 Patagonia’s billionaire founder, Yvon Chouinard, announced he had given the company away to a charitable trust and a group of non-profit organisations dedicated to tackling the climate emergency. “As of now, Earth is our only shareholder,” the company announced at the time. “All profits, in perpetuity, will go to our mission to ‘save our home planet’.”

“If they’re in business to save the home planet, why are they suing a climate activist?” said Wiley, who co-founded a charity called the Outdoorist Oath and has raised more than $1m hiking across the US.

A representative for Patagonia told The Observer that a legal battle “with someone who shares our values” was the “last thing we wanted”, but it had tried and failed to find a way forward with Pattie Gonia over several years. “Protecting the Patagonia trademark is part of protecting the ability of this company to continue doing [work connected to environmental activism] in the future,” it said.

Pip Heywood, a brand marketing expert, said it feels like a “real twist” in the brand’s story. “It shocked me. They’ve been such a flag bearer for the inclusivity in the industry, getting anyone and everyone into nature. Why would they now turn their back on that?”

But Ilanah Fhima, a professor of intellectual property law at UCL, said the lawsuit was well-founded: “What’s tricky is that it’s not just that [Pattie is] using it for her drag queen services. It’s because she’s attempted to register it for merchandise, and of course that’s what they sell.”

Pattie Gonia, who has 1.8 million followers on Instagram, sells T-shirts, sweatshirts and stickers which, according to Patagonia, mimic its brand. Last year Wiley filed a trademark application for his brand. “In the US, the basis of an infringement action is confusion,” Fhima said. “So it will come down to whether people have actually confused Pattie Gonia’s products with the company.”

When it launched the lawsuit, Patagonia said it had broader implications. “We cannot selectively choose to enforce our rights based on whether we agree with a particular point of view,” it said. “Inconsistent enforcement might prevent us from stopping entities like the oil and gas lobby, counterfeiters, hate groups, or other bad actors from using the Patagonia name and logo.”

Pattie Gonia’s fans are now calling for a boycott of the company.

Trademark lawsuits are a new problem for the drag queen community. They often parody famous names or brands as monikers – take Brita Filter, Juicy Kutoure or Trixie Mattel. But Dr Eden Sarid, who researches intellectual property law and drag queens at King’s College London, said there has always been a “gentlewoman’s” agreement between brands and performers.

RuPaul’s Drag Race was a turning point for the community, bringing it into the commercial mainstream. Legal troubles such as Pattie Gonia’s are “the new price of visibility,” said Sarid.

Few drag queens have registered their names as a trademark and this lawsuit may prompt a change. It was a trademark lawsuit against Lexi Love, who starred on RuPaul’s Drag Race, from a former adult film actor who uses the same name, that encouraged Wiley to attempt to register his brand: “Within weeks [Lexi Love’s] bookings were cancelled, music pulled, social media gone. I filed to make sure that that never happened to me.”

Lexi Love’s lawsuit is ongoing.

The drag queen Jan Sport, the stage name of Charlie Mantione, takes the moniker from the US backpack brand of the same name. Mantione has faced no pushback and has even collaborated with the company on a line of backpacks. “I know for a fact it is possible to not only coexist but to be uplifted by a company you respect enough to take its name,” Mantione said, calling for “shame” on Patagonia.

What happens in the Patagonia lawsuit could set a precedent for the drag queen community. “Drag queens are all of a sudden asking themselves, do I need a lawyer too? Am I next?” said Sarid. “All the queens are watching.”

Photograph by The Washington Post/Getty Images