What must I warrant regarding my employees and agents to whom I disclose Hardees' trade secrets?
Hardees Franchise · 2025 FDDAnswer from 2025 FDD Document
You may disclose trade secrets only to your employees and agents with a legitimate need to know, each of whom you will warrant will be subject to this confidentiality requirement.
Source: Item 14 — Patents, Copyrights, and Proprietary Information (FDD pages 61–62)
What This Means (2025 FDD)
According to Hardees's 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document, if you, as a franchisee, disclose Hardees' trade secrets to your employees and agents, you must warrant that each of them will be subject to the same confidentiality requirements that you are. This means you must ensure they understand and agree to keep the information confidential.
This requirement is crucial for protecting Hardees' competitive advantage. Trade secrets, such as manuals, formulas, methods, customer information, and vendor lists, are essential to the Hardees system. Unauthorized disclosure could harm Hardees by revealing valuable information to competitors.
In practice, this means you'll likely need to have your employees and agents sign confidentiality agreements. Hardees may even provide a specific form for this purpose. It's your responsibility to implement a system that ensures your employees maintain the confidentiality of Hardees' trade secrets. Failing to do so could result in legal repercussions and damage your relationship with Hardees.