The outdoor equipment and clothing company, Patagonia, filed a lawsuit against “Pattie Gonia,” a drag queen known for her environmental activism.
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The company, named after the region at the southern tip of South America, alleges a trademark infringement by Wyn Wiley, the performer of the drag queen. The legal action filed at the end of January in the federal court of Los Angeles is for 1 dollar, in addition to the legal costs incurred.
The drag queen, Pattie Gonia, focuses on environmental activism and has 1.8 million followers on her Instagram. She co-founded Outdoorist Oath, a group dedicated to promoting conscious outdoor interactions and, according to her, has raised 3.7 million dollars for nonprofit organizations.
Last Wednesday, through her social media, she announced the lawsuit against her and accused the company of betraying its core mission. “Patagonia told the media they are only suing me for 1 dollar. What they are really trying to do is take my name permanently and threaten me with more than a million dollars in legal fees. This is not a brand conflict. This is a corporation trying to erase an activist,” she states.
Her drag name is based on the Patagonia region, and she chose it in 2018, according to Wiley. She also denies having used the outdoor clothing brand’s logo or typography to generate merchandise.
The activist stated that she remained silent for four months since the filing of the legal action and has worked to avoid having to take this to court. In this regard, she emphasized that the demand from the brand founded by Yvon Chouinard could take away her career and activism, as well as her team’s salaries.
For this reason, Wiley urged the public to request that Patagonia drop the lawsuit. This is how the company’s latest Instagram posts received a large number of comments —55.4 thousand on the latest one— mostly critical in tone, with more calls to boycott and stop buying their products.
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Pattie Gonia also raised a discriminatory component on the part of the company. “It’s interesting that the multi-billion dollar corporation Patagonia chose this exact moment, at the height of anti-LGBTQ+ policies and environmental attacks, to sue me. They have known about me for eight years and the impact of the moment now is serious and real.”
Meanwhile, the brand states that they took action after the drag queen applied in September to use the name “Pattie Gonia” for sales of clothing items and to promote climate activism.
They also emphasize in the comments on the mentioned social network that they have tried to find some way to protect their brand and allow the activist to do her thing, but no agreement was reached.
In this regard, Patagonia highlights its responsibility in protecting the company, “which generations of employees have helped build. Not because a name means more than people, but because that name carries trust, purpose, and decades of work connected to environmental activism, product, storytelling, and impact in communities. Protecting the Patagonia brand is part of protecting this company’s ability to continue doing that work in the future,” they reinforce.
The company also stresses that they are not seeking financial gain nor challenging Pattie’s identity or creative expression. “The last thing we wanted was a legal fight with someone who shares our values, but we must protect our business and employees,” they conclude.
