Climate Activist Drag Queen Faces Six-Figure Lawyers' Fees In IP Battle With Patagonia - Above the Law

Patagonia filed an IP lawsuit against drag performer Pattie Gonia, whose offstage name is Wyn Wiley, seeking $1 plus attorneys’ fees. The company alleged that Pattie appropriated the Patagonia brand after filing a trademark application for “Pattie Gonia” in September 2025. If approved, the application would allow use of the name for branded products, drag show promotions, and other purposes. Patagonia’s damages request could be interpreted as a strategy to protect intellectual property while limiting harm. Pattie said she never used Patagonia’s logo and font. She also said that any artworks combining “Pattie Gonia” and Patagonia images were parody or fan art and that none would be created in the future.

"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."

Read at Above the Law