Patagonia and the Commodification of Nature

Patagonia is a vast region spanning southern Chile and Argentina. It is also the name of a multibillion-dollar outdoors company that has spent more than 50 years turning the region’s landscapes and mythology into a symbol of wilderness and adventure. Now, Patagonia Inc. is suing drag queen and climate activist Pattie Gonia for trademark infringement and dilution. But beneath all the legal questions lies a more complicated one: How did a U.S. corporation acquire the power to control the commercial meaning of a geographical area in the first place? This episode is an invitation to think beyond whether Pattie Gonia’s name is too similar to Patagonia’s trademark and to instead delve deeper into who defines the meaning of a place and what happens when that power becomes privately owned. In this episode of Art of Citizenry Podcast, host Manpreet Kaur Kalra is joined by Professor Alexandra Roberts, a scholar of trademark law at Northeastern University, to unpack the legal questions at the center of the case and the deeper ethical questions hiding beneath them. Together, they examine the mechanisms that underpin trademark law, the colonial logic of commodification, corporate personhood and what it would mean if nature were to be granted similar rights.  In this episode, we explore: What Patagonia must prove in its trademark infringement and dilution claims against Pattie Gonia Why the “duty to police” argument is often overstated in trademark disputes How a company can acquire trademark rights in a geographic name and reshape public meaning The colonial mythology of Patagonia as an empty wilderness and the Indigenous histories obscured by that narrative What Rights of Nature and corporate personhood reveal about whose interests the law recognizes Potential reforms to better protect geographic, cultural, and Indigenous terms 📌 Support the Podcast: Art of Citizenry is proudly independent. Support us as we critically explore, challenge, and unravel mainstream narratives through accessible, nuanced perspectives. Contribute via PayPal: https://visit.artofcitizenry.com/paypal Become a paid subscriber on Substack: https://artofcitizenry.substack.com/ Follow the show on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artofcitizenry Follow Manpreet on Instagram: https://instagram.com/manpreetkalra For more, you can find the full show notes of every episode at https://www.artofcitizenry.com/episodes