Is a Crepe De Licious franchisee required to disclose improvements to the System to the franchisor?
Crepe_De_Licious Franchise · 2025 FDDAnswer from 2025 FDD Document
You agree to assign and do hereby assign to us, all right, title and interest in and to the Improvements, including the right to grant sublicenses to any such Improvement.
You shall fully disclose the Improvements to us, without disclosure of the Improvements to others, and shall obtain our written approval prior to using such Improvements.
Any such Improvement may be used by us and all other Crepe de licious franchisees without any obligation to you for royalties or other fees.
We may, at our discretion, apply for and own copyrights, patents, trade names, trademarks and service marks relating to any such Improvement and you shall cooperate with us in securing such rights.
We may also consider such Improvements as our property and trade secrets.
In return, we shall authorize Franchisee to utilize any Improvement that may be developed by other franchisees and is authorized generally for use by other franchisees.
All Improvements created by you or any other person or entity retained or employed by you are our property, and we shall be entitled to use and license others to use such Improvements
Source: Item 22 — CONTRACTS (FDD page 57)
What This Means (2025 FDD)
According to the 2025 Crepe De Licious FDD, franchisees are required to disclose any improvements made to the Crepe De Licious system to the franchisor. This includes assigning all rights, titles, and interests in these improvements to Crepe De Licious, which also has the right to sublicense these improvements.
The franchisee must fully disclose these improvements to Crepe De Licious without disclosing them to others, and written approval from Crepe De Licious is required before the franchisee can use the improvements. Crepe De Licious and its other franchisees can then use these improvements without owing any royalties or fees to the franchisee who developed them.
Crepe De Licious has the option to pursue copyrights, patents, trade names, trademarks, and service marks for any improvement, and the franchisee is obligated to assist in securing these rights. All improvements are considered the property and trade secrets of Crepe De Licious, which can license their use to others. In return, the franchisee is authorized to use any improvement developed by other franchisees that Crepe De Licious approves for general use.