What is the franchisee's responsibility regarding the confidentiality provisions for their employees at Goldfish Swim School?
Goldfish_Swim_School Franchise · 2025 FDDAnswer from 2025 FDD Document
erially limited by any agreement or known infringing use.
We have developed certain trade secrets and other confidential information, including methods of business management, sales and promotion techniques, and know-how, knowledge of, and experience in, operating a Goldfish Swim School. We will provide our trade secrets and other confidential information to you during training, in the Confidential Brand Standards Manual and as a result of the assistance we furnish you during the term of the franchise. You may only use the trade secrets and other confidential information for the purpose of operating your franchised swim school. You may only divulge trade secrets and other confidential information to employees who must have access to it to operate the franchised swim school. You are responsible for enforcing the confidentiality provisions as to your employees.
Certain individuals with access to trade secrets or other confidential information, including your owners, shareholders, officers, directors, partners, members, if you are a corporation, limited liability company or other business entity, and your Designated Manager(s), on-site general manager if different from the Designated Manager, other managers of the Franchised Swim School, and executives are required to sign nondisclosure and non-competition agreements in a form the same as or similar to the Nondisclosure and Non-Competition Agreement attached to the Franchise Agreement. We will be a third-party beneficiary with the right to enforce those agreements. You must ensure that your employees with access to Confidential Information execute a Nondisclosure Agreement in the form similar to the form attached to the Franchise Agreement to prevent your employees from using or disclosing our Confidential Information after their employment terminates.
All ideas, concepts, techniques or materials concerning the franchised swim school and/or the System, whether or not protectable intellectual property and whether created by or for you or your owners or employees, must be promptly disclosed to us and will be our sole and exclusive property and a part of the System that we may choose to adopt and/or disclose to other franchisees, and you agree to assign to us all right, title and interest in any intellectual property so developed. Likewise, we will disclose to you concepts and developments of other franchisees that we make part of the System. You must also assist us in obtaining intellectual property rights in any concept or development if requested.
Source: Item 14 — PATENTS, COPYRIGHTS AND PROPRIETARY INFORMATION (FDD pages 51–52)
What This Means (2025 FDD)
According to the 2025 Goldfish Swim School FDD, franchisees have a significant responsibility to ensure their employees maintain the confidentiality of the franchised business's trade secrets and other confidential information. Franchisees may only share trade secrets and confidential information with employees who require access to it in order to operate the swim school. Franchisees are responsible for enforcing confidentiality provisions with their employees.
Goldfish Swim School requires franchisees to ensure that employees with access to confidential information sign a Nondisclosure Agreement. This agreement should be similar to the one attached to the Franchise Agreement. The purpose of this agreement is to prevent employees from using or disclosing confidential information, even after their employment with the franchisee ends.
To further protect confidential information, Goldfish Swim School mandates that franchisees implement reasonable procedures to prevent unauthorized use or disclosure of trade secrets. This includes keeping such information in a secure place, accessible only to the Designated Manager or on-site general manager when not in use. Franchisees must also take necessary precautions to ensure that any employee to whom they disclose confidential information maintains it in confidence and complies with the confidentiality provisions outlined in the Franchise Agreement.