Timing matters. If you’ve been closely following drag queens, outdoor clothing brands, and legal drama involving the two, you may have know that Patagonia launched an IP lawsuit against drag peformer Pattie Gonia back in January. There’s been coverage by those in the know, along with a long-form video deep dive on the legal ins and outs of the case that’s been posted since February. But the suit has been making headlines since Pattie chose to go public with her fight against the clothes retailer. USA Today has coverage:
In January, Patagonia filed a lawsuit against Pattie, whose offstage name is Wyn Wiley, for $1 plus attorneys’ fees.
The company alleged that Pattie is appropriating the Patagonia brand after she filed a trademark application for the name “Pattie Gonia” in September 2025.
…
Pattie’s trademark application, if approved, would allow the performer to use the name “Pattie Gonia” for branded products, drag show promotions and other purposes.
The $1 in damages could be read as clever lede burying by Patagonia — the real damage would be the six- to seven-figure cost of covering the clothing giant’s lawyers’ fees anyway. It could also be a de minimis kindness — they could have bumped that number up and gone for shares of sold merchandise if they really wanted to hit Gonia in the pocketbook. Instead, suing for just the dollar and lawyers’ fees shows that they are trying to protect their IP while doing minimal harm. Pattie says they’re also suing to stop the use of the stage name, but that might be reading a little too far into the scope of the suit:
You can hear Pattie lay out the drama in her own words here:
Addressing the trademark infringement claim, Pattie said that she’s never used the company’s logo and font. And while there are artworks that combine Pattie Gonia and Patagonia images, Pattie says that they were examples of either parody or fan art and that there would be none in the future. Great pledge to make moving forward, but look at the damned stickers:
As it stands, Pattie wants Patagonia to drop the suit and is calling on viewers to tell the grassroots activism supporting company to lay off. She posted an open letter to the company arguing that wasting brand equity by taking down an artist that has raised ~$4M for environmental causes is a poor use of their resources. Can’t fault a litigant for drumming up the big corporation targets small artist ethos when the law is clearly on the corporation’s side.
This is a fight that neither side wants to be in. Both want to protect their names — Patagonia understandably doesn’t want any more of the above stickering and Pattie doesn’t want to live through what happened to Lexie Love, a drag queen who lost bookings after a former actress of the same name filed repeated trademark claims.
However this conflict resolves, hopefully both parties manage to turn this into a fundraising opportunity to protect the planet. It’s the only one we’ve got!
Drag Queen Pattie Gonia Breaks Silence Following Patagonia Lawsuit [USA Today]
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boat builder who is learning to swim and is interested in rhetoric, Spinozists and humor. Getting back in to cycling wouldn’t hurt either. You can reach him by email at christopherrashadwilliams@gmail.com and by Tweet/Bluesky at @WritesForRent.
The post Climate Activist Drag Queen Faces Six-Figure Lawyers’ Fees In IP Battle With Patagonia appeared first on Above the Law.
Timing matters. If you’ve been closely following drag queens, outdoor clothing brands, and legal drama involving the two, you may have know that Patagonia launched an IP lawsuit against drag peformer Pattie Gonia back in January. There’s been coverage by those in the know, along with a long-form video deep dive on the legal ins and outs of the case that’s been posted since February. But the suit has been making headlines since Pattie chose to go public with her fight against the clothes retailer. USA Today has coverage:
In January, Patagonia filed a lawsuit against Pattie, whose offstage name is Wyn Wiley, for $1 plus attorneys’ fees.
The company alleged that Pattie is appropriating the Patagonia brand after she filed a trademark application for the name “Pattie Gonia” in September 2025.
…
Pattie’s trademark application, if approved, would allow the performer to use the name “Pattie Gonia” for branded products, drag show promotions and other purposes.
The $1 in damages could be read as clever lede burying by Patagonia — the real damage would be the six- to seven-figure cost of covering the clothing giant’s lawyers’ fees anyway. It could also be a de minimis kindness — they could have bumped that number up and gone for shares of sold merchandise if they really wanted to hit Gonia in the pocketbook. Instead, suing for just the dollar and lawyers’ fees shows that they are trying to protect their IP while doing minimal harm. Pattie says they’re also suing to stop the use of the stage name, but that might be reading a little too far into the scope of the suit:
You can hear Pattie lay out the drama in her own words here:
Addressing the trademark infringement claim, Pattie said that she’s never used the company’s logo and font. And while there are artworks that combine Pattie Gonia and Patagonia images, Pattie says that they were examples of either parody or fan art and that there would be none in the future. Great pledge to make moving forward, but look at the damned stickers:
As it stands, Pattie wants Patagonia to drop the suit and is calling on viewers to tell the grassroots activism supporting company to lay off. She posted an open letter to the company arguing that wasting brand equity by taking down an artist that has raised ~$4M for environmental causes is a poor use of their resources. Can’t fault a litigant for drumming up the big corporation targets small artist ethos when the law is clearly on the corporation’s side.
This is a fight that neither side wants to be in. Both want to protect their names — Patagonia understandably doesn’t want any more of the above stickering and Pattie doesn’t want to live through what happened to Lexie Love, a drag queen who lost bookings after a former actress of the same name filed repeated trademark claims.
However this conflict resolves, hopefully both parties manage to turn this into a fundraising opportunity to protect the planet. It’s the only one we’ve got!
Drag Queen Pattie Gonia Breaks Silence Following Patagonia Lawsuit [USA Today]
Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s . He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boat builder who is learning to swim and is interested in rhetoric, Spinozists and humor. Getting back in to cycling wouldn’t hurt either. You can reach him by email at christopherrashadwilliams@gmail.com and by Tweet/Bluesky at @WritesForRent.
The post Climate Activist Drag Queen Faces Six-Figure Lawyers’ Fees In IP Battle With Patagonia appeared first on Above the Law.
