Gonia with the Wind

The latest kerfuffle blazing through LinkedIn (and the rest of the internet) is the legal dispute between Patagonia, the outdoor apparel brand well known for its moral compass and social justice efforts and Pattie Gonia, a very popular drag queen and environmental and LGBTQ+ activist. This is a tricky one so I’ll try to keep it brief and clear. Patagonia has filed a lawsuit for trademark infringement, dilution, and unfair competition with its main goal being that the USPTO deny the use of the PATTIE GONIA trademark and any other mark or design similar to the PATAGONIA trademarks along with recovering nominal damages in the amount of one dollar ($1.00) and the suspension of any product sales bearing the PATTIE GONIA name. The lawsuit came after Pattie Gonia sought exclusive ownership of a PATTIE GONIA trademark to commercialize endorsements, marketing campaigns, advocacy, and, more relevantly, products.This issue is made even more troublesome because in 2022, Patagonia and Pattie Gonia had formally agreed that the latter would not appropriate in any way former’s brand or identity. In the lawsuit, the Patagonia-logo parodies shown in the image are attributed to being fan art and not an official PATTIE GONIA product but flaunting it on multiple occasions in various adaptations was not a good idea. The lawsuit gained public traction after Pattie Gonia issued a statement about it, lambasting Patagonia for attacking someone that has the same mission as them. Not surprisingly most of the internet has sided with Pattie Gonia given that Patagonia is being represented as the corporate villain and while there may some truth to that, there is also the fact that Pattie Gonia went ahead and associated Patagonia’s trademark with his/her own brand. No matter how good Pattie Gonia’s intentions are, you simply don’t mess with a registered trademark if you don’t want to invite trouble. On the other hand, Patagonia doesn’t have to be so petty t