Is a Managing Owner of a Bigfoot Forestry franchise required to sign a Confidentiality Agreement?

According to Bigfoot Forestry's 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document, a Managing Owner is not required to sign a Confidentiality Agreement. However, any Project Manager or Service Technician hired by the franchisee must sign a Confidentiality Agreement. The Managing Owner may serve as a Service Technician, but is not required to do so.

This means that while the owner with primary management responsibility isn't mandated to sign a confidentiality agreement, Bigfoot Forestry ensures that employees who have access to sensitive information are bound by such an agreement. This is a common practice in franchising to protect the franchisor's trade secrets, operational methods, and other confidential information.

The Confidentiality Agreement is attached as ATTACHMENT "E" to the Franchise Agreement. It defines "Confidential Information" as Know-How, Business Data, information in the Manual or comprising the System, terms of Definitive Agreements and any amendments thereto, and all other concepts, ideas, trade secrets, financial information, marketing strategies, expansion strategies, studies, supplier information, customer information, franchisee information, investor information, flow charts, inventions, mask works, improvements, discoveries, standards, specifications, formulae, recipes, designs, sketches, drawings, policies, processes, procedures, methodologies and techniques, together with analyses, compilations, studies or other documents that are designated as confidential, known to be considered confidential, and/or reasonably to be considered confidential due to their nature.

As a prospective franchisee, it's important to understand the scope of the Confidentiality Agreement that your employees will be required to sign, as well as your own obligations to protect Bigfoot Forestry's confidential information, as outlined in the franchise agreement.