Who owns the intellectual property rights to the materials delivered to Belocal franchisees under the service agreement?
Belocal Franchise · 2025 FDDAnswer from 2025 FDD Document
All intellectual property rights, including copyrights, patents, patent disclosures and inventions (whether patentable or not), trademarks, service marks, trade secrets, know-how, and other confidential information, trade dress, trade names, logos, corporate names, and domain names, together with all the goodwill associated therewith, derivative works and all other rights (collectively, "Intellectual Property Rights") in and to all documents, work product and other materials that are delivered to the Franchisee under this Agreement or prepared by or on behalf of N2 in the course of performing the Services (collectively, the "Deliverables") shall be owned exclusively by N2.
Source: Item 22 — CONTRACTS (FDD page 71)
What This Means (2025 FDD)
According to Belocal's 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document, N2 owns all intellectual property rights to the materials delivered to Belocal franchisees under the service agreement. This includes copyrights, patents, trademarks, trade secrets, and other confidential information related to documents, work product, and other materials delivered to the franchisee or prepared by N2 while performing services. These materials are collectively referred to as the "Deliverables."
This means that while Belocal franchisees receive these materials, they do not own them. The franchisee is essentially licensing the use of these deliverables to operate their franchise. This is a common arrangement in franchising, where the franchisor maintains control over its brand and system standards.
As a Belocal franchisee, it is important to understand that you cannot freely modify, distribute, or create derivative works from these materials without N2's explicit permission. Doing so could be a breach of the franchise agreement and could lead to legal repercussions. Franchisees should be aware of the distinction between using the materials to operate their business and owning the rights to those materials.