It’s a legal dispute that keeps dragging on.
Bougie outdoor brand Patagonia has been trying for years to reach an agreement with drag queen Pattie Gonia over claims that she’s been using their trademark — and after failed settlement talks, the case could go to trial next year.
The prolific puffy coat maker filed a trademark infringement lawsuit in January against Gonia — a mustachioed LGBTQ and climate activist who adopted the drag persona after a 2018 trip to the South American region of Patagonia.
Patagonia has, until now, tried to show they were treating the case with kid gloves so as not to offend its customer base.
“We want to acknowledge any hurt it has caused, especially in the LGBTQ+ community,” the company said in a statement.
The company claimed Gonia, whose real name is Wyn Wiley, broke their 2022 agreement to respect the brand when she applied in 2024 to trademark “Pattie Gonia” — causing Patagonia “irreparable harm,” the suit alleged.
Despite “extensive settlement discussions,” the two sides “were ultimately unable to reach a resolution,” according to a federal filing submitted by both sides in the lawsuit Monday.
They’ve agreed to head to trial in June 2027, though a date will need to be finalized by the judge.
The clothing company claimed that in 2022 they let slide Gonia’s environmental partnership with a water bottle company as long as the drag queen’s name “did not appear on any products and didn’t use Patagonia’s logos” — conditions she has since stopped following, court papers allege.
Pattie Gonia started hawking merchandise — including clothes — and promoting products that compete with Patagonia. And she implied a false connection between the two “by sending out thank you packages that included stickers of Patagonia’s logo with Pattie Gonia branding superimposed on it,” the papers claim.
This has “confused” customers, making it seem like the company sponsors the drag queen, they claim.
Meanwhile, Gonia claims she trademarked the drag persona so it couldn’t be “stolen from her.”
And she dismissed Patagonia’s concerns over customer confusion, saying in the court papers that, “No reasonable consumer is likely to confuse Patagonia’s clothing brand with the limited merchandise offerings of a touring drag queen/artist.”
Regardless, Gonia’s performances and outfits are all protected satire under the First Amendment, she claimed.
The drag queen said for years, the company has known about and signed off on her activities — even promoting her advocacy on Patagonia’s website.
If Gonia were to agree to Patagonia’s terms — withdrawing the trademark application, no longer using the mountain landscape logo and no longer selling clothes and merch under the drag persona — this would make “it impossible for [Gonia] to fund their advocacy and charitable work,” she alleged in court papers.
“It would effectively dismantle Wyn Wiley’s beloved and famous drag persona along with a community of over 600 artists and advocates that have raised over $3.7 million for nonprofits,” she alleged.
If the two sides could agree on Patagonia’s three terms, “we can work out everything else, and Pattie Gonia could continue as a performer and activist. We share common ground with them, including the goal of saving our home planet and creating a more inclusive outdoors,” the company said.
In her own statements Sunday, Pattie Gonia said her 2022 deal with the company “wasn’t a broad agreement about my future.”
Still, she said she would agree to stop using the company’s logo as a parody.
“Drag is built on parody, puns and jokes, but I’m willing to never parody their logo ever again,” she said.
