A court decision established over a decade ago involving two entities founded by the late Zaha Hadid has been reversed by a Court of Appeals justice in London.
The two entities are Zaha Hadid Limited, the company Hadid established known as Zaha Hadid Architects; and Zaha Hadid Foundation, the organization Hadid launched before her death in 2016 to preserve her legacy.
On February 27, a justice stated that the architecture office Hadid founded, where Patrik Schumacher is a principal, has the right to terminate an agreement that’s been in place between it and the Zaha Hadid Foundation since 2014.
The trade mark license the court ruling pertains to was dated May 1, 2013, although it wasn’t signed until 2014. The licensing agreement was not intended “to lock the parties together forever,” the ruling from February 27 dictated.
Schumacher now has the right to change the name of Zaha Hadid Architects and to renegotiate the terms of the contract.
This means the architecture office may no longer have to pay 6 percent of its annual earnings to the Zaha Hadid Foundation—what cumulatively amounted to over $27 million between 2018 and 2024.
According to court documents, the office will likely remain under the name Zaha Hadid Architects, however it will try renegotiating the contract that’s been in place in since 2014 specifically in relation to the amount of net income it pays to the Zaha Hadid Foundation.
The architecture firm stated that paying 6 percent of the office’s net income to the Zaha Hadid Foundation is “too high.”
Legal battles between Schumacher and the Zaha Hadid Foundation stretch back to 2016.
After Hadid’s death, Schumacher fought over her estate valued at $133 million with Hadid’s estate executors—Hadid’s niece Rana Hadid, artist Brian Clarke, and property developer Peter Palumbo.
In 2020, a justice ruled that the majority of Hadid’s estate would go toward the Zaha Hadid Foundation, and not Schumacher.
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