Patrik Schumacher wins right to rename Zaha Hadid Architects

Zaha Hadid Architects principal Patrik Schumacher has won a legal battle with the Zaha Hadid Foundation over the use of the late Zaha Hadid's name.

Last week, the Court of Appeal overruled a High Court judgement from 2014 over a licensing agreement that required the architecture studio to retain Hadid's name and pay a fee to use it.

Justice Adam Johnson ruled that the licensing agreement, which requires Zaha Hadid Architects to pay the foundation six per cent of its revenue each year, could be ended as it could not have been intended to be in place indefinitely.

Agreement includes "a power to terminate on reasonable notice"

Until now, the studio was locked into the agreement. The ruling opens the door for Schumacher to change the name of the studio or to renegotiate the contract.

"As a matter of principle and logic, and absent any other factors, it necessarily follows from a conclusion that the true construction of the parties' intentions is that an agreement is to be of indefinite duration as opposed to perpetual, that a power to terminate on reasonable notice forms part of those intentions," the ruling stated.

In his ruling, Johnson stated that potential issues with a building designed by Hadid or changes in architectural style, which would make the brand a negative, meant that the contract could not have been intended to be in place forever.

"Many things might happen or emerge over the decades or centuries following the date of the agreement which might be so detrimental to the brand as to make it seriously disadvantageous to the company to be obliged to continue to promote the marks, for example if an iconic Zaha Hadid building was beset with structural problems," he said.

"Further, architectural styles change with changes in technology and taste," he continued.

"Can it sensibly be said that the parties intended the company to be bound to associate itself with and to promote Dame Zaha's architectural identity in 100 years time?"

Decision latest in series of legal battles

Hadid signed the agreement in 2013 and following her death in 2016, the licensing revenue was given to the Zaha Hadid Foundation. According to the judgement this has resulted in £21.4 million in fees between 2018 and 2024.

The decision reverses the initial High Court judgement, which ruled that Zaha Hadid Architects could not be released from the licensing agreement.

At the time, the judge ruling in favour of the Zaha Hadid Foundation determined that the agreement was not restricting the studio's ability to be competitive.

"The company's economic activity has not been sterilised," wrote judge Adam Johnson. "In fact, it has achieved considerable financial success in the period since the licence agreement was entered into."

The case is the latest legal battle involving the studio and foundation. Following Hadid's death, there was a four-year-long dispute over her estate, which was settled in a court hearing in 2020.

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