The trademark dispute between drag queen Pattie Gonia and outdoor brand Patagonia has reached a boiling point in recent days, with the clothing giant’s CEO and Pattie swapping video statements since the most-recent reporting by the Source on May 28.
In a widely shared video last week, Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert said the company has no intention of dropping the lawsuit, as Pattie requested in her statement last month. Patagonia filed the civil lawsuit in federal court in January, the Source reported.
Patagonia and Pattie struck a deal in 2022 that allowed the artist to continue making appearances as her drag name. But the deal ran afoul when she began selling upcycled “Pattie Gonia”-branded clothing on her website, according to Patagonia’s complaint. Pattie refuted that claim in a May 27 statement, saying those agreed-on terms pertained to a collaboration with a third party and wasn’t a broader agreement about her future.
Pattie Gonia, né Wyn Wiley and a Bend resident, is a nationally touring drag artist, entrepreneur, LGBTQ activist and environmentalist. Pattie Gonia debuted in 2018.
In a May 30 statement, Pattie said she’ll drop the trademark for “Pattie Gonia” if Patagonia drops the lawsuit. In social media statements, Pattie says she wants to continue the money-making drag performances and brand collaborations that, in turn, fund her activism.
Currently on a national drag performance tour, Pattie’s next tour stop is Phoenix, Arizona, on June 4. Her media team told the Source she’s not presently available for comment. The two parties near a trial scheduling conference on June 8 in Central California federal court.
“We …never want to prohibit Pattie Gonia from doing the performances they do,” Gellert said. “We’ve never wanted to get in the way of the advocacy that Pattie Gonia has done and does to make outdoor access more equitable, more fair, more inviting.”
What the company takes issue with, Gellert continued, is Pattie Gonia’s alleged use of Patagonia’s six trademarks. When Pattie began selling apparel, started a business and filed a September 2025 trademark application for “Pattie Gonia” in apparel and advocacy, Patagonia saw two options, Gellert said — do nothing or file suit.
“That’s because if we don’t defend [the trademarks], whether it’s with people we have a lot of spiritual alignment with, we lose them,” Gellert said. “The issue we’re wrestling with is not trying to take somebody’s identity away; the issue…is a trademark issue.”
In her May 30 social media rebuttal, Pattie called Gellert’s statement “straight-up lies.”
She disputes the timeline Gellert presented, also noting that the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office cleared the first hurdle in her application for “Pattie Gonia,” stating it’s “not confusingly similar” to Patagonia.
Pattie also cited a four-month gap between her trademark filing and an email notification from Patagonia’s attorney that the company had filed the lawsuit.
“There was no conversation,” Pattie continues. “So either you, Ryan Gellert, CEO of Patagonia are lying to the public, or the people under you are lying directly to your face.
“Patagonia trying to erase my identity and my whole community’s activism,” Pattie continued. “The offer is on the table, and now the whole world is watching. What are you going to do?”
Elizabeth Sbardellati, an attorney who heads the Greenberg Glusker’s Trademark Protection & Enforcement Group, told the Source that this lawsuit has made national waves for several reasons, not least of which is the high profile of Patagonia and Pattie’s savvy public relations strategy, which has brought this spat before the court of public opinion.
“Patagonia is famously a values-driven brand,” Sbardellati said. “Pattie is really using that to drive this into the media — she’s aligned herself with those [environmentalism and equity] values for a long time.”
Sbardellati says a coexistence trademark agreement between Patagonia and Pattie Gonia might be the best solution.
“Lawsuits aren’t necessarily won or lost in the courthouse, and public opinion matters a lot, particularly with a brand like Patagonia,” Sbardellati said. “Maybe Patagonia could even leverage Pattie’s activism in some way — expand the pie for everyone.”
This article appears in the Source June 4, 2026.
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Sorry but this is a pretty open and shut case of copyright and trademark infringement. Patagonia has a legal requirement to defend their brand. The fact that Patti Gonia has been allowed to persist this long is a huge generosity on Patagonia’s part. It’s clear they held out as long as possible and made a good faith effort to avoid pursuing legal action so long as Patti Gonia remained a persona and not a business. However, Wiley stepped into this mess by filing a trademark and embarking on selling clothing, which ultimately forced Patagonia’s hand. For all those enraged as the result of Wiley’s coordinated PR campaign to create controversy here, I’d invite you to step back and consider why after 4 months, this is the course of action they’ve chosen. If they had any legal standing or recourse, that would have been pursued. But they do not. Wiley is simply in the wrong. This is a simple a case of a brand doing what is legally required of them to defend their trademarks after being forced to do so. Patti Gonia is on the losing end of this battle and Wiley knows it. So, they’ve chosen to make things messy with a PR blitz rather than turn their focus to the advocacy and activism they claim to champion. Don’t be fooled by the pageantry. This isn’t a good vs. evil, moral vs. corrupt, corporate vs. citizen situation, it’s just the business of doing business. Patti Gonia will lose and Patagonia’s brand will persist, largely unharmed. Don’t fall for the ragebait.
Also worth noting that if Wiley was actually concerned with activism rather than the narcissistic pursuit of fame and attention, they would recognize the massive scale at which Patagonia participates in activism, which far outweighs anything Patti Gonia has done or could do in this arena.