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 | What does the term ‘intellectual property’ mean? |
|  | JOHN PRATT WRITES:
This is a term that you often see in franchise agreements, and is often used in a rather general way to include all items relating to the franchisor’s brand and know how. These items belong to the franchisor and, in effect, the franchisor is only licensing them to a franchisee and the franchisee must stop using them on ceasing to be a franchisee.
Lawyers get terribly excited about whether the term ‘intellectual property’ includes know how and patents, but this really doesn’t matter in a franchise context. The term certainly includes trade marks (which, in an ideal world, should be registered trade marks) and copyright. It is less certain whether it includes patents (which, in any event, are rare in franchising) or know how.
The important thing is that the franchisor’s manual will almost certainly be the subject of copyright and it is the manual that contains the franchisor’s know how. In this country copyright is not obtained through registration, but simply arises. However, copyright only protects the way of expressing a concept and not the concept itself; if it did there would be only one opticians, burger or fast-print chain.
In a nutshell, when the term intellectual property is used in franchising it relates to trade marks (both registered and unregistered), copyright and know how.
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