Auckland Zoo in legal clash over accessible bathroom design

This unassuming acccesible toilet at Auckland Zoo, opened in April 2024, has triggered legal claims of bad faith and complaints of copyright infringement.

Auckland Zoo, a volunteer-run charity and a toilet-maker are stuck in a year-long legal standoff over claims of intellectual property infringement.

The dispute over the zoo’s accessible bathroom – opened to the public last year – has its roots in an initially promising collaboration between the council-owned facility and volunteer-run Changing Places NZ.

Changing Places founder Jenn Hooper campaigns for toilet facilities usable by those with profound disabilities, like her daughter Charley.

Her charity, based on similar organisations overseas, lobbies for and assists organisations wanting to improve accessibility and maintains access to these rooms for its members through a fob system.

“If you go by United Kingdom figures, one in 260-odd people need a Changing Places-style room to be able to leave the house. That’s why we’re more and more invisible. Your world becomes smaller than it needs to be,” she said.

Hooper said she began talks with the zoo in 2021, driving up for meetings from Hamilton, and hosting zoo officials in her home town to show designs and the finished product at other facilities she had helped build.

But by 2023, the zoo got cold feet, and withdrew from discussions and announced they were proceeding independently.

Zoo director Kevin Buley said that decision was largely over control, with too much considered to have to be ceded to Changing Places.

“Auckland Zoo felt that the Changing Places NZ model was not right for the zoo’s accessible bathroom and, furthermore, that the model would have essentially required the zoo to cede operational control of its accessible bathroom,” he said.

Auckland Zoo’s logo used for its new accessible bathrooms drew complaints from Changing Places NZ and was later ammended.

Fast-forward to April 2024, and Auckland Zoo announced the opening of its new accessible bathroom facilities on Facebook and in a media release.

Hooper said she was flabbergasted when she saw what they had built.

“Honestly, it’s a 100% ... copy. It’s a photocopy of my room,” she said.

“To have that stolen, after all that hard work, it’s a very hard pill to swallow. And I’m not ready to swallow it yet.”

Hooper was also particularly unhappy about the logo used by the zoo for the new facilities, which bore a striking similarity to that of her own charity.

Jenn Hooper, the founder of Changing Places NZ, has helped to build fully accessible toilet facilities like this one. She says Auckland Zoo stole her designs – a charge they deny. Photo / Sylvie Whinray

Following complaints from Hooper, the zoo redid its branding.

“Without any judgment on the merits of Changing Places NZ assertions regarding the original logo the zoo was using, the zoo replaced all instances of the original logo with the current logo,” Buley said.

Hooper secured pro bono legal representation, from Russell McVeagh and barrister Earl Gray, and began correspondence with the zoo and Auckland Council making claims of copyright infringement and acting in bad faith.

“Tātaki Auckland Unlimited and the zoo deny the allegations of copyright infringement and acting in bad faith made by Changing Places NZ,” Buley said.

Rather, Burey suggested, issues over the design used are not a matter for the council, but rather the facility’s constructor contractor Exeloo.

“We cannot comment on whether Exeloo used a design belonging to Changing Places NZ – this is a matter between Exeloo and Changing Places NZ,” Buley said.

Enter Exeloo, a public toilet-making multi-national with offices in North America, Australia – and New Zealand.

This is the same firm that had worked with Changing Places to build the Hamilton facility over which Hooper now saw double with the zoo toilets.

Contacted by the Herald this week, Exeloo NZ managing director Craig van Asch sounded pained over a dispute that was taking too long to pass.

He said the Hamilton facility was a collaborative effort between his firm and Hooper’s Changing Places.

“We did contribute to the design, but Jenn claimed it was hers exclusively,” he said.

When contracted to the zoo, he said he was aware of Changing Places’ involvement earlier in the process and assumed it was a similar job.

“We proceeded on the basis that was what they wanted, and this is where we got ourselves into trouble,” he said.

The contract between council and Exeloo indemnifies the former from any copyright claims, leaving van Asch carrying the can.

“They relied on our advice, and our advice was it was fine and it was incorrect. We stepped on a landmine,” he said.

He said he’s made a without prejudice offer to Hooper to resolve the matter – understood to be for $20,000 – but the dispute now has too many parties to easily clear.

“Exeloo’s kinda stuck. Our plan is to work with Jenn and get it resolved, but she’s fixated on council. Exeloo’s more than happy to settle with parties to reach a mutually acceptable result.”

The case of the Auckland Zoo loo remains blocked, too small to justify resolution in the courts, and with a battling charity wanting to restore scuttled plans from five years ago.

“I just want them to do what they promised they’d do, what they said they’d do in the first place. I want them to do the right thing,” Hooper said.

Matt Nippert is an Auckland-based investigations reporter covering white-collar and transnational crimes and the intersection of politics and business. He has won more than a dozen awards for his journalism – including twice being named Reporter of the Year – and joined the Herald in 2014 after having spent the decade prior reporting from business newspapers and national magazines.