Drag performer Pattie Gonia rejected outdoor apparel company Patagonia’s offer to drop its trademark lawsuit, saying one of the three conditions the company proposed would “erase” the performer as an activist.
Patagonia filed a trademark lawsuit against drag queen Pattie Gonia in January. (Photo by Rich Polk/Getty Images for NRDC)
Getty Images for NRDC
“No deal, Patagonia,” Pattie Gonia said in an Instagram post on Monday night, rejecting the company’s offer to settle its trademark lawsuit that accuses the drag performer of violating a previous agreement with the company to not sell merchandise under the Pattie Gonia name.
Pattie Gonia said the company’s request that the performer “stop selling and promoting apparel and other products as Pattie Gonia” would “erase my advocacy.”
Patagonia is “not just talking about my upcycled t-shirt merch,” Pattie Gonia alleged, claiming the company’s request would preclude Pattie Gonia from partnering with brands to “pay for the education, activism and advocacy that me and my team do.”
Patagonia said in a post on Instagram late Sunday night it wants to resolve the lawsuit and wishes it had not been necessary to take legal action, adding it shares “common ground” with Pattie Gonia, who is an environmental activist.
Patagonia said in its post it presented an offer to Pattie Gonia to drop the lawsuit if the drag performer withdraws trademark applications made to protect the Pattie Gonia name, agrees not to use the company’s logos and stops selling and promoting apparel and other products as Pattie Gonia.
The apparel company filed a lawsuit in January against Pattie Gonia, whose real name is Wyn Wiley, alleging the drag performer violated an agreement previously made with the company by filing to trademark the name Pattie Gonia, departing from the “discrete use of a persona to engage in activism” to “launch a wide-ranging commercial enterprise under the PATTIE GONIA brand.”
The lawsuit has sparked a divided response online, with trademark attorney Josh Gerben telling NBC News Patagonia has an “obligation” to protect its trademark, while supporters of Pattie Gonia flooded the apparel company’s Instagram with comments urging it to drop the lawsuit.
Patagonia’s lawsuit said Pattie Gonia’s attempt to trademark the drag name, which would protect the right to use the Pattie Gonia brand in merchandising and environmental activism, places the performer in direct competition with the company. Patagonia alleged Pattie Gonia’s trademark application “appropriates” the Patagonia brand and “has already confused consumers, and will continue to confuse consumers” over whether the company and the drag queen are related. According to Patagonia’s complaint, the company “repeatedly” communicated with Pattie Gonia and reached an agreement with the performer in 2022 to not sell any Pattie Gonia-branded merchandise or to use fonts or designs that are “substantially similar” to Patagonia’s logos. Patagonia alleged Pattie Gonia violated the agreement by selling merchandise, and the complaint includes email correspondence between the parties in 2025, in which the company reminded the drag queen their agreement prohibits the commercialization of the Pattie Gonia name. Patagonia’s lawsuit notes it “must protect its iconic trademarks, even when it supports or agrees with Pattie Gonia’s views, message, or objectives.”
Pattie Gonia, in an Instagram post last week, disputed that she had ever agreed to not sell Pattie Gonia-branded merchandise. “In 2022, when I was collaborating with a third party, Patagonia asked me to follow certain terms, and I did,” Pattie Gonia said, adding it was not a “broad agreement about my future.” The performer also denied filing a trademark application to compete with Patagonia. Pattie Gonia also accused Patagonia of choosing “this exact moment, the height of anti-LGBTQ+ politics and attacks on the environment,” to file a lawsuit. Pattie Gonia first responded to the lawsuit in a post on Instagram last week, accusing the company of “trying to erase an activist” and betraying its mission of saving the environment, noting the Patagonia region in South America predates both the company and drag queen by centuries. Pattie Gonia denied having used the Patagonia logo in merchandise, saying the lawsuit “cherry-picks a few examples of playful parody and fan art,” also noting drag is “built on parody, puns and jokes.”
Patagonia is suing Pattie Gonia for just $1, plus legal fees. Pattie Gonia said on Instagram the lawsuit effectively threatens to “take away my name permanently and threaten me with more than $1M” in legal fees.
Patagonia has long been considered a socially progressive company for its environmental activism, donating millions to environmental groups and suing President Donald Trump in 2017 for shrinking federal lands protections. The company has also previously partnered with the Human Rights Campaign to oppose state legislation targeting LGBTQ rights. Pattie Gonia, who has 1.8 million Instagram followers, created the drag persona in 2018, and claims to have raised $3.7 million for environmental causes, including $1 million raised last year on a 100-mile hike.
Why drag queen Pattie Gonia is werking from the mountaintops (The Washington Post)
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