Patagonia vs. Pattie Gonia: Why The Outdoor Retailer Is Suing A Drag Queen

00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hither folks.

00:00:02
Speaker 2: It is Wednesday, June third, and a major outdoor recreation retailer is suing a drag queen for copyright and trademark infringement.

00:00:16
Speaker 1: The drag queen's name is Patty Gonia.

00:00:21
Speaker 2: Can you guess which major outdoor recreation retailer is suing? And with that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. You brought this story to my attention, I think a couple of days ago. It is now escalated because there's some back and forth going on in public.

00:00:36
Speaker 1: But Rose, this is fascinating. The name is Patty go Yes.

00:00:41
Speaker 3: Yes, it obviously made me chuckle at first, and it is catchy.

00:00:46
Speaker 4: Yes.

00:00:46
Speaker 3: We actually have been going to a my oldest off Broadway show called Wigs, and they start with the drag queen to kind of introduce the audience to this improv style theater. And they always have these clever names and so we always get a kick out of it. We love Jacqueline Hyde.

00:01:05
Speaker 1: Jacqueline is the first name. Jacqueline name hide.

00:01:09
Speaker 2: They do this a cute name. They're wonderful. This one is well done. Patty is the first name, Gonia is the last.

00:01:16
Speaker 3: Yes, so it caught our attention because we were laughing and I thought, Okay, I can see where that may have been problematic.

00:01:23
Speaker 4: But here's the deal. They have been cool.

00:01:25
Speaker 3: Patagonia the company and Patty Goonia the Drag Queen have known about each other for years and have had an agreement in which they were operating under.

00:01:37
Speaker 2: It seems yes, Patagonia the company was not coming after the drag Queen for the name over the past couple of years. They had just some kind of understanding and agreement. You can still perform under that title, no issue, no problem. So Patagonia has now sued Pattygonia. So what changed ropes?

00:01:57
Speaker 4: All right?

00:01:58
Speaker 3: So Patty Gonia applied for a trademark in September. They want to sell merchandise with the name Paddy Gonia. And if you look at some of the merchandise it does resemble. There are similar looks to what you see when you see the Patagonia label.

00:02:22
Speaker 4: Look, I love this company.

00:02:23
Speaker 3: I've used their equipment, I've used I love I run in their jackets and just they have incredible outdoor recreational not just what you can wear, but what you can use when you're hiking, skiing, whatever you want to do outside.

00:02:38
Speaker 4: They've got it for you. But they do have a very clever specific look about them.

00:02:42
Speaker 2: Yes, So whatever was going on though Ropes the past couple of years, everybody's been cool. So now pad Egonia wants to as it sounds like Ropes expand if you will, to start merchant to start putting their stuff out there a little more. So Padagonia thinks that's going to in some way to loot their brand. Look, we see brands do this all the time. That's not shocking or anyway or it doesn't seem like they're targeting necessarily do anything mean, they're trying to protect their company that there.

00:03:12
Speaker 3: Yes, I do think it's fair and I actually appreciate it. Look, they understand they don't want to upset the LGBTQ plus community by going after one of their beloved drag queens. So they're trying to manage this as carefully as possible from a public relations standpoint, and that's understandable. By the way, this is Gay Pride month, it's June third, everyone's wave in the rainbow flags and certainly you know this probably timing wise isn't great for Patagonia, and maybe a lot better for Patigonia, because yes, there was a lot of emphasis on supporting the community and helping them build their brands and making them accessible to folks and just normalizing just people being themselves.

00:03:55
Speaker 2: And we should know this is not just some random drag queen. This is someone who has been built the following, built the community around climate change, around the environment, does do merchandising, does have a pretty significant following, So this isn't just some rando, if you will. So the thought is, if this person starts merchandising, expanding and putting so much stuff out there that says Paddy Gonia and in some way might look similar to Patagonia stuff, then yeah, it could look like they're in the same in I don't know, in business together in some way. So that's where we land. So when it first came out, the statement that they made heroes of Patagonia, when they first filed lawsuit in January, they started out by saying, we wish we didn't have to do this, and they went into a pretty long, detailed and I thought, pretty good explanation of what was going on.

00:04:42
Speaker 4: I thought so too, we'll read it for you. They said.

00:04:44
Speaker 3: For more than three years, Patagonia engaged in open dialogue with Paddy Gonia to discuss ways she could continue her environmental and social advocacy, brand deals, and other work without infringing on our trademarks.

00:04:58
Speaker 4: We thought we'd reached a great and for a while it worked.

00:05:02
Speaker 3: Unfortunately, in late twenty twenty four, Patty Gonia started selling Patty Gonia branded apparel online and continued to create and use versions.

00:05:12
Speaker 4: Of our logo.

00:05:14
Speaker 3: Our outreach to Patty asking her to stick to our agreement was refused. A subsequent note asking to discuss potential ways forward got no response. Then, in September of twenty twenty four, Patty Gonia filed a trademark application seeking the exclusive rights to use the brand Patty Gonia to sell clothing and apparel, promote environmental activism, engage in online marketing and endorsements, and more. These rights would directly overlap with the work we do and the products we provide, for which we have long standing rights and trademark registrations.

00:05:49
Speaker 2: They go on to say in this lawsuit that the trademark, at least that was the thing that really set it off when it appeared that Patty Gonya was going to try to use this and start more marketing and have exclusive rights to the trademark. They said this reflects Paddygonia's departure from discreete use of a persona to engage in activism and confirms defendants intent instead to launch a wide, raging commercial enterprise under the Paddy Gonia brand. Ropes things escalated with this trademark. I say, wow, this person's trying to blow up using a name essentially taken from us.

00:06:24
Speaker 3: Yes, and with the same type of idealism behind it, where environmental activism. And again the logos I did, look, they do look similar.

00:06:33
Speaker 4: And so yes, she is.

00:06:35
Speaker 3: She would be buoyed up basically by it looks as though she might even be aligned with or an advocate for, or maybe even an emissary of Patagonia, Like it looks like they're in business together, even possibly, And.

00:06:50
Speaker 2: We get then we've seen this from companies before. Oh my goodness, I mean, I mean people file trademarks over all kinds of stuff these days. Absolutely, this is a trademark fight. But Patty Gonia did have a response to the lawsuit roades, do you buy that that it wasn't about merchandising and branching out and whatnot. It was just trying to make sure nobody else could take this name that I've built.

00:07:12
Speaker 1: Is that read maybe?

00:07:15
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't know what's in her head, but I know that certainly she came out strong, and she's come out swinging saying that she's accused Patagonia of trying to erase her advocacy.

00:07:28
Speaker 4: It didn't seem like that's what Patagonia was trying to do. But you know, I don't know. You can say the big, mean, evil, huge.

00:07:34
Speaker 3: Company, but this is a company that actually has a very long history of being active and being communal and giving back and making a lot of efforts to do so and to be public to do so. So it seems like it would fly in the face of what Patagonia has stood for up until now.

00:07:53
Speaker 2: Especially when you hear Robes and both sides are agreeing that there was an understanding. She's been able to use the name. Padagonia hasn't been coming after Paddygonia for using the name in performances and being online nothing. It hasn't been a case in an issue until now. In Ropes, they've been going back and forth and they talk about how they tried to work something out behind the scenes. They finally had to file a lawsuit in January that they say they did not want to do, but this has continued grow if they're trying to not go to court. This was fascinating to me. Padagonia is negotiating in public on social media a settlement with a drag queen.

00:08:30
Speaker 4: That's amazing, isn't it wild? This is where we are now.

00:08:33
Speaker 3: Companies get it that the war, the pr war, is almost as important, if not more important, than the legal victory that they might get, because yes, the people who they want to buy their brand and go into their stores and use their products are the very people who are online and might be citing with Paddy Gonia and they don't need that bad press. So yeah, they took to Instagram and they said, there's a lot going around about the lawsuit. We filed it in January to protect our trademark marks, and we owe you an update. Very interesting. We wish this lawsuit had not been necessary, and we want to acknowledge any hurt it has caused, especially in the LGBTQ plus community. We don't want to argue trademark law on social media. Importantly, we continue to want to resolve this. As we have said to Patty Gonia, we can do that if they withdraw all trademark applications, stop using our logos, stop selling and promoting apparel and other products as patty Gonia. If we can agree on this, we can work out everything else and Patty Gonia could continue as a performer and activists. We share common ground with them, including the goal of saving our home planet and creating more inclusive outdoors. That seemed very civil.

00:09:50
Speaker 2: So the response, as you can imagine, did come on social media as well. Patty Gonia responded to this, and it's a shame well as we read it here that they seem so close like this should be able to get results right.

00:10:03
Speaker 3: It just seems like there's a sticking point, but it's a big one. So Patty responded with this. Patagonia just posted their offer to settle. When I told you they were trying to erase my advocacy, their bullet number three is what I was talking about, stop selling and promoting apparel and other products as Patty Gonia. Patagonia is not just talking about my upcycled T shirt merch in that bullet point, they're talking about the partnership work with other brands that I have done for years to pay for the education, advocacy, and activism that me and my team do. If I can't do partnerships as Patty Gonia, it breaks the whole ecosystem of advocacy and community engagement. And they understand this because their work is built on the exact same model, advocacy work funded through commercial work. She said bullet points one and two, I've already said I would agree to Bullet three. Absolutely not no deal. How to Gonia, So she's saying that she will withdraw her trademark application. She is saying she will stop using their logos, but she won't stop selling and promoting her apparel and products as Patty Gonia.

00:11:14
Speaker 2: Like everything else, this is just money. It sounds like you're trying to preserve the ability to make money off of Patty Gonia. Correct the saying here about what they're talking about. They're talking about the partnership work with other brands. I guess maybe Patty go On, you understand something, but that's not what the company is seems to be saying.

00:11:34
Speaker 3: Yeah, they they, I mean it seems like the trademark her trademark application started this whole thing. And she's actually saying she'll withdraw her trademark application, but she.

00:11:46
Speaker 1: Wants the ability.

00:11:47
Speaker 2: She wants get off my back if I want to sell products as Patty Gonia.

00:11:51
Speaker 4: Correct, I don't know how she wants to make money.

00:11:53
Speaker 1: Well, I don't know how you get around that.

00:11:55
Speaker 2: I mean, she claimed it's not just about that, it's about the ecosystem and all these things. But that is the ecosys selling and promoting apparel.

00:12:03
Speaker 3: The ecosystem is that she can't fund her activism without money coming in period. So this is, yes, I think ultimately about the ability to make money off of the name Paddy.

00:12:15
Speaker 2: But stay here, we'll tell you, and you will be shocked to hear in this lawsuit what Patagonia wants financially.

00:12:25
Speaker 1: Wait, I get it right, I say Patia.

00:12:27
Speaker 4: Pata Patagonia.

00:12:28
Speaker 1: Okay, get it right.

00:12:29
Speaker 2: Okay, Patagonia wants from Paddygonia in this lawsuit. I've been strung, We've be we sound ridiculous because we're being very careful to make sure we're saying Padi.

00:12:39
Speaker 4: I wonder how annoying that is to listen to our apologies.

00:12:41
Speaker 1: Okay, we'll try to say it faster.

00:12:43
Speaker 2: But yeah, you'll hear how much the company wants from the drag queen, and we will give you some of our favorite drag queen names, including our favorite drag queen we just told you about here in New York City State.

00:13:06
Speaker 3: Welcome back, everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ. We are talking about a drag queen versus a major outdoor recreation retailer. Don't say that every day, do you. No, Patagonia is suing drag Queen Patty Gonia, and yeah, they can't seem to settle it right now, and so they've taken to social media to see if they can put the pressure of public opinion to all of this legal back and forth to see if that's going to sway things in one direction or the other, or at least pressure one side to cave.

00:13:41
Speaker 4: Doesn't look like that's happening right now.

00:13:43
Speaker 2: All this is I just I mean, I hope this has a good resolution. It's a time like everybody with their arms around each other Pride Month and everything get working.

00:13:52
Speaker 1: Yeah we can find a solution.

00:13:54
Speaker 4: In this month.

00:13:55
Speaker 3: That would be a wonderful way to celebrate and honor the folks who are being celebrated on this week. Patty Gonia is actually win Wiley. That so they but she is Patty Gonia, he is when Wiley. Lots of pictures that they put up there of just you know when they are when and when they are Patty.

00:14:18
Speaker 4: So it look a huge.

00:14:20
Speaker 3: Online social media following and a huge wonderful.

00:14:25
Speaker 4: Performer that people flock to go see.

00:14:28
Speaker 3: But it's interesting when you hear what Patagonia is actually asking for. What are they asking for in this lawsuit? What financial repercussions, what are they asking to receive if they win their lawsuit?

00:14:42
Speaker 2: They're going through all this for a dollar one dollar. It's just symbolic and you get it that it's not about punishing this person or money. It's just about stop, you're going to hurt our brand because you I mean, this is a compliment almost. We recognize that you are blowing up and more people are knowing about you, and I think it could dilute our brand.

00:15:02
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's a compliment to a certain degaer.

00:15:04
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I actually would think for Patty Gonya even this lawsuit as much of a headache as I'm sure it is, and I'm sure it's as expensive as hell legal fees all of that. However, Wow, we had not heard of Patty until now. So this, I mean, she was already on the map, but this certainly blows up her map, like she is everywhere.

00:15:24
Speaker 2: Now we'll get help, probably get help with legal fees. I think Patagonia is asking for their attorney's fees. That might be symbolic as well.

00:15:31
Speaker 3: Yes, exactly, I'm pretty sure they can afford them. But look, we have talked about how we have enjoyed, like we go pretty much every Friday night to this Weig's play where we get to watch a drag queen perform.

00:15:43
Speaker 4: But yes, Jacqueline Hyde is our favorite.

00:15:47
Speaker 3: She is a wonderful human being and just epitomizes just the beauty and comedic timing and just the entertainment value of what these women do.

00:16:00
Speaker 2: And I just think back to you know Montel and Chuck Charles and oh your boys listening to this, and you you uttered it this way. We go almost every Friday, we do we see this drag queen perform. It's attached to a larger show, but it's just that to come. I've never had anybody here. I spent my Friday nights going to a drag you're doubted, but no, it's it's.

00:16:24
Speaker 1: Yes, it's the opening of the show.

00:16:25
Speaker 2: But I get upset when Jacqueline Hide isn't there.

00:16:29
Speaker 4: She's pretty good.

00:16:30
Speaker 3: My favorite's hard to match her level of talent.

00:16:33
Speaker 1: I must say, Jacqueline Hide.

00:16:35
Speaker 4: I love it, Jacqueline Hyde.

00:16:36
Speaker 3: And we just love the names like so the Patty Gona just made me laugh when I saw that, because it's so in line with so many other drag queen's names. So I actually went and found some of the most clever drag queen names out there.

00:16:49
Speaker 4: Some of them are probably nights not safe for work.

00:16:52
Speaker 3: I mean, I have to be careful with some of these because they're double entendres. Oh yes, yep, well I okay, how about Asia Consent.

00:17:00
Speaker 4: I don't like that Asia Consent.

00:17:01
Speaker 1: I don't like that one about all.

00:17:04
Speaker 4: Amanda Tory meeting Amanda.

00:17:08
Speaker 1: To meet that's too much, that's too far. Okay.

00:17:10
Speaker 4: You know coffee what Tia coffee, t or coffee.

00:17:15
Speaker 3: Tia coffee, but you say it like a New York or Tia coffee.

00:17:18
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, these help, They're getting better. Okay, they're getting better now Nova.

00:17:26
Speaker 3: China say it past, it's Nova and then China, Nova China.

00:17:35
Speaker 4: It's a man in drag.

00:17:38
Speaker 1: China, Budina.

00:17:41
Speaker 3: Okay, but it's Nova China. Say it the way Trump says it, and it's better this one. How about Dixie is the first name and last name is normous.

00:17:50
Speaker 1: It's not saying that ship out loud.

00:17:53
Speaker 4: How about Sigourney Beaver?

00:17:56
Speaker 2: No, that's not nice to my dear lovely actress.

00:17:59
Speaker 4: How about Freda? And then slaves?

00:18:03
Speaker 1: Is that a black drag, a black dragon?

00:18:08
Speaker 3: This is my favorite one of them all. We'll leave in a very clean fun one. First name is Sham Sham, all right. Last name is Payne. Okay, that's not Champagne. That'd be mine, Shampagne first name.

00:18:19
Speaker 1: Okay, But we have fun with this. Freedom, love the freedom.

00:18:22
Speaker 3: And again Frida slaves, freed slaves, avery, Okay, well you put avery, but avery and then good lay.

00:18:31
Speaker 1: A very good lay, avery, good lay.

00:18:35
Speaker 4: They are clever.

00:18:37
Speaker 3: I left, I left some of the other ones out, but they get very vulgar.

00:18:42
Speaker 1: Worse than what you've given me with Vagina was.

00:18:45
Speaker 4: Well, I thought Nova China was kind of funny. Is he uncut?

00:18:50
Speaker 1: Okay?

00:18:50
Speaker 4: Bottom?

00:18:51
Speaker 3: All right?

00:18:52
Speaker 2: We got the Volks on Patty.

00:18:56
Speaker 1: We'll let you know what happens with that.

00:18:58
Speaker 2: As always pretty I just spent it some time with us something half of my dear giggling Amy robike.

00:19:02
Speaker 1: I'm d j Owens. We'll talk for y'all. Zoom h m hm

00:19:09
Speaker 3: Hm hm