All posts by Lane Fisher

We are fast approaching the 4th annual Springboard Event. Each year, franchise law firm Fisher Zucker and franchise PR firm Fishman PR team up with Entrepreneur Magazine to host the preeminent event for emerging brands. The past 5 years have shown emerging brands to be a major population in the franchising world with 100% of IFA’s new membership since 2011 having less than 60 units. This trend has not slowed:

  Franchisors regularly use comprehensive provisions in their franchise agreements in an attempt to control how fees and other amounts payable to themselves and, in certain circumstances, their approved suppliers. When a franchisor decides to enter the international arena, the stakes are heightened and host of new issues such as withholding taxes, stamp duty, currency of payment and exchange controls can often times take center stage in the pre-sale negotiating

  Typically, newer franchisors seem to be a bit overwhelmed when facing their first few international franchise transactions. While the prospect of getting an oftentimes large, up-front franchise fee or master franchise adds an undeniable level of excitement to the deal, franchisors must also deal with (a) the general apprehension associated with letting another be the steward of their brand in a country that is more than a 10-hour flight

This scenario is familiar to most franchisors.  Your franchisee has been sued and you have been  named as a defendant because you have deeper pockets.  Unfortunately, the court will not let you out on a motion to dismiss and you are stuck engaging in the excruciating exercise of discovery and possibly trial in a matter you had nothing to do with.  You and your franchisee have an independent contractor relationship!

A July 7 decision by a California federal judge has granted class action status to a group of employees of a McDonald’s franchise in their claims against McDonald’s for alleged employment law violations.  The case Ochoa et al. c. McDonald’s Corp., et al. centers on whether McDonald’s Corp. is liable for various labor law violations committed by its franchisee, including the failure to pay overtime wages and provide required breaks,

Yes… For now. Many franchisors, like other businesses, rather than file trademark applications in individual countries have sought to protect their trademarks in Europe by filing for an EU mark with the European Union Intellectual Property Office, which grants protection in all 28 countries of the European Union. The recent vote by the British people to leave the EU has created uncertainty as to the long term status of EU

When drafting an Item 19, you may think your job is done once you compile the data, but the job is far from complete. The next part of the Item 19 process is drafting the background and explanatory notes to accompany Item 19 and explain the data contained therein. One problem you may face is whether to include certain “disclaimer” language that protects the franchisor (to a certain extent) from

One fundamental challenge that franchisors of all sizes face is how to implement system-wide changes and require franchisees’ compliance with such changes. There are several ways to make system-wide changes and one of the easiest ways to implement such change is to update the operations manual. First, you must ensure at the outset that your franchise agreement requires compliance with all changes to the operations manual. Second, it is important

As most in the franchise community are likely aware, on October 1, 2015, the North American Securities Administrators Association’s Franchise and Business Opportunity Project Group (NASAA) released for internal and public comment a proposed franchise commentary on financial performance representations (the “FPR Commentary”).  And, although the public comment period has since ended, members of the NASAA committee have recently revealed that the FPR Commentary will be revised and open for

In addition to the business of building the brand and system for the purpose of business success in general, some franchisors and franchise systems may have other goals in mind, including for the purpose of being sold.  In order to do so, there are certain steps the franchise system will have to take in order to be appealing to buyers in the marketplace.  Below are some key issues, although not