Patagonia, the Ventura-based outdoor apparel company, is suing Pattie Gonia, the drag queen and environmental activist, over what the company says are infringements of its logo and other trademarks.
Wyn Wiley has been performing and producing social media content under the stage name Pattie Gonia since 2018. Pattie has 1.5 million followers on Instagram, where posts have featured her hiking in boots with six-inch heels, or backpacking 100 miles in drag down the California coast to raise money for outdoor nonprofits.
Patagonia says it has no problem with Wiley using the Pattie Gonia name. The company’s own name is borrowed; the Spanish gave it to the southernmost region of South America 450 years before Yvon Chouinard moved his mountain climbing equipment business to Ventura and started calling it Patagonia in 1973…