Is a Gold Star franchisee allowed to duplicate the confidential material?
Gold_Star Franchise · 2025 FDDAnswer from 2025 FDD Document
FRANCHISEE further acknowledges and agrees that the COMPANY is the owner of all rights in and to the System, and the Confidential Material, and that the System and the Confidential Material constitute trade secrets of the COMPANY which are revealed to FRANCHISEE in confidence, and that no right is given to or acquired by FRANCHISEE to, and FRANCHISEE shall not, disclose, duplicate, license, sell or reveal any of such Confidential Material to any person, other than disclosure to an employee of FRANCHISEE to the extent required by his/her work in accordance with this Agreement to be familiar with relevant Confidential Material.
Source: Item 23 — Receipts (FDD pages 53–163)
What This Means (2025 FDD)
According to Gold Star's 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document, franchisees are generally prohibited from duplicating confidential materials related to the Gold Star system. The Franchise Agreement specifies that information contained in the Manual, and other information about the Proprietary Products, the System and the Business, including customer and supplier lists (the "Confidential Material") are proprietary, highly-confidential trade secrets.
The agreement explicitly states that franchisees cannot disclose, duplicate, license, sell, or reveal any Confidential Material to any person. The only exception to this rule is if disclosure is required to an employee of the franchisee, and only to the extent that the employee needs to be familiar with the Confidential Material to perform their work in accordance with the Franchise Agreement.
This restriction is in place to protect Gold Star's trade secrets and maintain the integrity of the franchise system. Franchisees must also ensure that their employees and related parties agree to keep the Confidential Materials confidential. Furthermore, franchisees agree not to contest Gold Star's rights to the confidential material.