Patagonia, the outdoor clothing and gear retailer, has sued drag performer Pattie Gonia for trademark infringement, claiming that similarities in their names and branding have caused “confusion and deception” among consumers.
In the lawsuit, filed January 21 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the company is seeking $1 in nominal damages and asking the court to block Pattie Gonia — the drag persona of Wyn Wiley — from registering her name as a trademark or selling merchandise bearing it, reportsThe Independent.
A touring drag performer with more than 1.5 million Instagram followers, Pattie Gonia is best known as an LGBTQ and environmental advocate who organizes in-person hikes, outdoor events, and fundraising campaigns. Her mustached drag aesthetic draws heavily from her love of the outdoors, with a focus on educating followers about climate change and environmental sustainability. Last year, she hiked 100 miles in drag to raise $1 million for inclusive outdoor organizations.
Pattie Gonia has also been outspoken on political issues, criticizing the Trump administration on multiple fronts — including its support of the Israeli government during the ongoing occupation of Gaza, recent actions by ICE and CBP agents amid an immigration crackdown, and what she has described as anti-LGBTQ discrimination. Among the incidents she has highlighted is the National Park Service’s termination of a nonbinary wildlife biologist for hanging a transgender Pride flag from Yosemite National Park’s El Capitan rock formation during off-duty hours.
According to the lawsuit, Patagonia alleges that Pattie Gonia’s sale of merchandise bearing her name “compete[s] directly with the products and advocacy upon which Patagonia built its PATAGONIA brand over the last fifty-three years.”
The company claims it first raised concerns in 2022, when Wiley was discussing a fundraising partnership with Hydro Flask and The North Face, one of Patagonia’s competitors. Hydro Flask reportedly worried that Pattie Gonia’s name could create confusion about an association between the brands and contacted Patagonia to discuss the proposed collaboration.
Patagonia says that after discussions with Wiley and Hydro Flask, the parties reached an agreement allowing Pattie Gonia to continue using her name for activism, but not for commercial sales. That agreement allegedly barred her from using her name “in any form” on products, from using or displaying Patagonia’s logo, or from using the same font Patagonia employs in its marketing.
However, emails cited in the lawsuit show that Wiley and his business partner did not explicitly agree to those terms, instead saying they would “keep note of” the company’s concerns.
Patagonia now claims that Pattie Gonia violated the alleged agreement by selling branded merchandise in 2024 and further breached it by filing a trademark application in 2025 as she seeks to “commercialize products, endorsements, marketing campaigns, and advocacy.”
As evidence, the company included images of Pattie Gonia promoting merchandise it claims “is nearly identical to the Patagonia word mark,” arguing that such similarities risk “irreparable” harm to its brand and reputation.
As reported by the Daily Mail, after Patagonia contacted Pattie Gonia over what it viewed as a breach of the 2022 agreement, Wiley disputed the company’s interpretation, saying its view of the agreement was “incorrect.” He also claimed that pieces of “fan art” bearing the Pattie Gonia name that resembled Patagonia’s fonts or logo were never sold.
Wiley and his business partner further said they sought to “avoid any perceived association with the brand Patagonia” after learning that a company owned by Patagonia had developed and sold tactical and military gear to the U.S. government and police departments.
“Consumers have yet to hold the brand Patagonia responsible for NOT thinking beyond profit with the creation of Broken Arrow, which supports the very people and institutions destroying the planet — the U.S. military is, after all, the world’s largest global polluter,” Wiley wrote in an email exchange. “It is a disconcerting fact that for a company that claims to be ‘in business to save our home planet.’”
According to the lawsuit, Wiley and his business partner told Patagonia they “have never and will never reference the brand Patagonia’s logo or brand.” Patagonia contends that promise was broken by the use of what it calls a “copy cat” Pattie Gonia logo on gloves and other merchandise.
The company has faced online backlash over the lawsuit, but defended its actions in a statement.
“We’re not against art, creative expression or commentary about a brand,” the statement reads. “While we wish we didn’t have to do this — and actively engaged with Pattie for several years to avoid this — it has become necessary to protect the brand we have spent the last 50 years building.
“We want Pattie to have a long and successful career and make progress on issues that matter — but in a way that respects Patagonia’s intellectual property and ability to use our brand to sell products and advocate for the environment,” the company added.
Critics, including Gay Camping Friends, the world’s largest LGBTQ outdoor community, strongly condemned Patagonia’s actions.
“Gay Camping Friends stands in full support of Pattie Gonia, a drag artist, and the broader drag community’s right to satire, artistic expression, and visibility, especially within outdoor and environmental spaces that have historically excluded LGBTQ+ people,” the group said in a statement.
“Drag has always used humor, wordplay, and cultural reference as tools for visibility, critique, and community-building. Satire is not theft,” the statement continued. “Expression is not infringement. And queerness does not require permission from corporate interests to exist, comment, or inspire.”
A new report finds that acceptance of LGBTQ people is declining across the United States, with nearly three in ten LGBTQ adults saying attitudes toward their community have worsened.
On Thursday, January 15, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation released findings from its Annual LGBTQ+ Community Survey, which drew responses from nearly 15,000 U.S. adults -- roughly two-thirds of whom identified as LGBTQ.
In addition to the survey, HRC last year launched its "American Dreams Tour," traveling to 10 cities and engaging more than 5,000 people through town halls, trainings, and community meetings with local LGBTQ leaders and activists. Those on-the-ground conversations informed the report, which aims to assess the state of LGBTQ life in the United States one year into the second Trump administration.
A transgender woman has filed a lawsuit against hotel giant Hilton, alleging that she was assaulted by a security guard at the Hilton Dallas Lincoln Centre while she was a registered guest.
According to the complaint, filed in the 192nd Civil District Court in Dallas County, Kimberly Barnett, an Afro-Latina transgender woman from Nebraska, was staying at the hotel in late June while attending Dallas Pride Weekend and other LGBTQ events.
Barnett returned to the Hilton Dallas Lincoln Centre around 3:45 a.m. on June 24 and attempted to "valet her vehicle," according to the lawsuit.
In late November, the University of Oklahoma placed Mel Curth on administrative leave after the transgender graduate teaching assistant gave a student a zero on an essay about gender roles.
The essay cited the Bible to defend traditional gender roles and described transgender people as "demonic." Curth and the course's instructor, Megan Waldron, said the paper failed to meet basic academic standards due to a lack of empirical evidence. Both noted that the paper cited no scholarly sources and failed to offer an evidence-based critique of the assigned article, which argued that children who do not conform to rigid gender stereotypes are more likely to face bullying and negative mental health outcomes.
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