Is a Bumper Man franchisee's principal also obligated to maintain confidentiality?
Bumper_Man Franchise · 2025 FDDAnswer from 2025 FDD Document
We will disclose to you certain confidential or proprietary information and trade secrets. You and your personnel must maintain the confidentiality of all Confidential Information. Additionally, you and your principals agree not to communicate or use our Confidential Information for the benefit of anyone else during and after the term of the Franchise Agreement. You and your principals must also agree not to use our Confidential Information at all after the Franchise Agreement terminates, expires, or is transferred. You and your principals may disclose this Confidential Information only to personnel who need it to operate the Bumper Business, and in such case, such personnel must be bound to a confidentiality agreement with similar confidentiality covenants and obligations.
Source: Item 14 — PATENTS, COPYRIGHTS AND PROPRIETARY INFORMATION (FDD pages 31–32)
What This Means (2025 FDD)
According to Bumper Man's 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document, both the franchisee and their principals are obligated to maintain the confidentiality of Bumper Man's confidential information. This obligation extends not only during the term of the Franchise Agreement but also after it terminates, expires, or is transferred. This means that principals, like the franchisee, cannot disclose or use Bumper Man's confidential information for anyone's benefit, including their own, at any time.
The confidential information that Bumper Man protects includes data, statements, training and operational methodology content, management programs, and any other information or data regarding their business that would reasonably be considered proprietary or confidential. It also includes Customer Data, which is any information from, about, or relating to customers of the Bumper Business that identifies, or can be used to identify, contact, locate or be traced back to the specific customer. This includes personally identifiable information such as a customer's name, address, phone number, email address, passport number, financial profile, or credit card information.
This requirement ensures that Bumper Man's trade secrets and proprietary information remain protected, preventing unfair competition and maintaining the integrity of the Bumper Man system. Franchisees and their principals can only disclose this information to personnel who need it to operate the Bumper Business, and even then, those personnel must be bound by a confidentiality agreement with similar covenants and obligations. This comprehensive approach to confidentiality is common in franchising, as franchisors need to protect their intellectual property and business methods.