Does Ledgers have a duty to protect its copyrights?

According to the 2025 Ledgers Franchise Disclosure Document, Ledgers does not have a duty to protect its copyrights or defend franchisees against claims arising from the use of its copyrighted items. Ledgers claims a copyright to its Operations Manual, marketing material such as its website text, and other printed material, although it has not presently filed a registration of those copyrights. Ledgers considers all of these items confidential and proprietary.

Upon termination of the Franchise Agreement, a franchisee must return to Ledgers its Operations Manuals and any confidential information. Franchisees are prohibited from directly or indirectly disclosing, publishing, disseminating, or using Ledgers' Confidential Information, except as authorized in the Franchise Agreement. Franchisees can use Ledgers' Confidential Information to perform their obligations under the Franchise Agreement, but in doing so they will only allow dissemination of Ledgers' Confidential Information on a need-to-know basis and only to those individuals that have been informed of the proprietary and confidential nature of such Confidential Information.

"Confidential Information" includes Ledgers' information or data (oral, written, electronic or otherwise), including a trade secret, that is valuable and not generally known or readily available to third parties obtained by the franchisee from Ledgers during the term of the Franchise Agreement. The Confidential Information of Ledgers includes all intellectual property associated with the Franchise System, all other materials relating to the Franchise System that are not a matter of public record, and all information generated during the performance of the Franchise Agreement. Customer Data is also considered Confidential Information.