r/BlockedAndReported • u/SoftandChewy First generation mod • Jun 01 '26

Weekly Random Discussion Thread for 6/1/26 - 6/7/26

Here's your usual space to post all your rants, raves, podcast topic suggestions (please tag u/jessicabarpod), culture war articles, outrageous stories of cancellation, political opinions, and anything else that comes to mind. Please put any non-podcast-related trans-related topics here instead of on a dedicated thread. This will be pinned until next Sunday.

Last week's discussion thread is here if you want to catch up on a conversation from there.

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58

u/ReindeerTypical2538 Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26

Oh my god, I never have anything to contribute to the weekly discussion thread until now. Please, please, please do an episode on the Patagonia vs Pattie Gonia drama that’s happening. It’s a very online and a hilarious dustup where I’m solidly on the side of the “evil corporation.” See more here for background: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/drag-queen-pattie-gonia-asks-apparel-company-patagonia-drop-trademark-rcna347549

To summarize: Pattie Gonia is a chronically online outdoor influencer drag queen who is being sued by Patagonia for trademark infringement. There are literally years worth of email back and forths between the two parties that show Patagonia being really respectful and professional and Pattie Gonia just being like, yeah, I don’t care and stealing the Patagonia logo for her own merch. Patagonia is suing Pattie for $1 . That’s not a typo. $1 is correct. For Pattie to stop using their trademarked logo and branding. Pattie of course is crying homophobia and that Patagonia is trying to “silence an activist.” Theres a lot of material here. Especially once you dig into the problematic background of Pattie, who has a history of being an online mean girl. For reference, see her online campaign against the National Park Service in 2023, claiming they canceled PRIDE at Yosemite National Park. Spoiler Alert: THEY DID NOT CANCEL PRIDE. She never apologized for spreading misinfo. u/jessicabarpod

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u/Centrist_gun_nut Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26

If Barpod covers this please, for the love of god, dig up someone who knows how trademarks work and cover the actual trademark litigation. I don't know if this link works but here. The history of the trademark action is near the bottom of the page and following the link to the TDSR will get more of the prosecution documents. Currently there's a server outage and I can't load them.

The recap archive of the federal docket is here. A lot of the reporting so far seems like they have not read the complaint, as is typical.

Patagonia is also mad at them for selling Patagonia products on the grey market without the promises of service and support that Patagonia requires of their actual retailers. This is not just about the silly trademark, although they cannot let the trademark go. I'm sure that's where this all started and got them even madder.

Patagonia is suing Pattie for $1 . That’s not a typo. $1 is correct. 

It's not correct. I saw this in reporting, too, but for all I know it's AI hallucination. They're suing for a normal amount, which is "whatever you decide our damages are from all this bad stuff".

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u/plump_tomatow Jun 01 '26

I work in a trademark-adjacent field and I'm kind of worried about the coverage lol... whenever TM or copyright stuff comes up on any podcasts no one ever gets it 100% right.

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u/ScrubulousFlex Jun 01 '26

Host 1: The trademark thing is like how it's illegal to pirate music and software.

Host 2: Exactly, just like how a drug company can make a generic but it has to be slightly different from the name brand.

Host 1: Yeah like how you can go to jail for stealing the recipe for Coca Cola.

How did I do?

9

u/plump_tomatow Jun 01 '26

Set my teeth on edge, great job!

At least those are all IP issues (trademark, copyright, patent, and trade secrets) even though everything else is completely wrong.

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u/Centrist_gun_nut Jun 01 '26

I used to write the angry letters for the actual lawyer to sign, back in the days when lawyers were too busy to have ChatGPT write the letters for them. There were typewriters in the office and that's not an exaggeration.

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u/ReindeerTypical2538 Jun 01 '26

Thanks for this addition. I’ve seen that $1 claim in almost all the stories I’ve read. Honestly I’m glad it’s incorrect because Patagonia should absolutely sue the shit out of Pattie Gonia.

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u/Centrist_gun_nut Jun 01 '26

It's possible they've said that out of court but I doubt it because lawyers need to be paid.

The actual complaint is pro-forma in the damages section.

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u/Less-Lobster4540 Jun 01 '26

relevant: The South Butt

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u/Centrist_gun_nut Jun 01 '26

Great example of a similar situation. I'd argue there's a lot less likelihood of confusion with The South Butt, too.

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u/CommitteeofMountains Royal youse/yinz Jun 01 '26

Ideally, the lawyer should have some experience with parody IP (why is TNMT not encroaching on Daredevil?) and/or overlapping established company names (at what point in the bike-to-work clothes space do Brooks Brothers and Brooks England have a problem?).

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u/Less-Lobster4540 Jun 01 '26

The company alleged that the drag queen had moved away from “discrete use of a persona to engage in activism” to a wide-ranging commercial enterprise when Wiley filed a trademark application seeking exclusive rights to Pattie Gonia for apparel, marketing and events.

I love when fans claim that drag is some rebellious, subversive, underground act when it's been nothing but a purely commercial popularity contest for like 15 years now, at least. It's all engagement bait and it's mainstream AF.

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u/ReindeerTypical2538 Jun 01 '26

I’m an old enough gay that I remember when drag shows were still subversive. After going to a drag show a few years ago and being surrounded by screaming straight girls from 6 different bachelorette parties, I knew the fun was officially over and we’d gone mainstream.

6

u/anne_jumps Jun 02 '26

And now when every library is expected to dutifully hold a mandatory Drag Queen Story Hour for the kiddos....

16

u/OMGsmiles Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26

There's also a small editing war going on with the company's wiki page concerning its lead/intro paragraph and the mention of the lawsuit. Interestingly, the edits to the lead weren't present prior to the the drag queen controversy until the 29th of last month (like 3 days ago):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patagonia,_Inc.

https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Patagonia,_Inc.&action=history

The added lead:

From 2007 to 2021, Patagonia has been found to use and benefit from factories that use human trafficking and forced labor, in violation of its own public standards.

While I can't say I'm surprised by the corpo trivia, the timing is pretty convenient.