Patagonia is suing popular drag queen Pattie Gonia for trademark infringement due to her name and merchandise that they believe confuses customers.
In the lawsuit filed in a California federal court on Jan. 21, Patagonia argued that Gonia directly competes with its products and “advocacy work” by using her name on clothing and other commercial ventures.
Gonia previously agreed not to use her name “in any form” or Patagonia's logo on font in products, but that changed in 2024 when she started selling merchandise with versions of the company’s logo on it, argues Patagonia. Last year, Gonia sought to trademark the “Pattie Gonia” brand for clothing and apparel, and also to promote environmental activism.
Patagonia claims that people have already been confused about whether Gonia is affiliated with the company, providing screenshots of people commenting on one of her social media posts and praising the outdoor brand.
The company claims that if it doesn’t prevent others from copying its brand and logo, then it risks "losing the ability to defend our trademarks entirely.”
“To put a finer point on it, we cannot selectively choose to enforce our rights based on whether we agree with a particular point of view,” the company said. “For these reasons, Pattie Gonia’s use of a near-copy of our name commercially...poses long-term threats to Patagonia’s brand and our activism.”
In one notable part of the lawsuit, the company shares a February 2025 email from Pattie and her business partner Jenny, in which the duo claim that the Pattie Gonia name has nothing to do with the company at all, but instead is inspired by the Patagonia region in South America. They also criticize the company for its Lost Arrow brand, which developed and sold clothing to the US Special Operations Forces, which in turn sent it to military units like the Green Berets and the Navy SEALs. They go on to take aim at the “cultural appropriation” of the name "Lost Arrow.”
The email criticizes the company, saying that Lost Arrow, which the company sold off in 2022, is antithetical to their proclaimed core value of “protect[ing] the home planet.”
“[T]he quick sale of the Lost Arrow division during the height [of] Black Lives Matter does not absolve the brand Patagonia,” they write. “…[Lost Arrow] supports the very people and institutions destroying the planet - the U.S. military is, after all, the world’s largest global polluter.”
In a statement, Patagonia expressed that its intent with the suit wasn’t to tear Gonia down.
“We’re not against art, creative expression, or commentary about our brand,” Patagonia said, according to Fast Company. “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.”
Gonia and her business partner have released a statement in response to the lawsuit, according to Bloomberg Law, stating that they have “never and will never reference the brand Patagonia’s logo or brand.”
Patagonia is suing Gonia for $1.