If Noodles & Company adopts a recipe created by a franchisee, who owns the recipe?
Noodles_Company Franchise · 2025 FDDAnswer from 2025 FDD Document
All recipes, processes, ideas, concepts, methods, and techniques used or useful to a restaurant, grocery store, or other business offering restaurant products, whether or not constituting protectable intellectual property, that you create, or that are created on your behalf, in connection with the development or operation of your Noodles & Company restaurants must be promptly disclosed to us.
If
we adopt any of them as part of the System, they will be deemed to be our sole and exclusive property and deemed to be works made-for-hire for us. You hereby assign and further agree to sign whatever further assignment or other documents we request to evidence our ownership or to assist us in securing intellectual property rights in such ideas, concepts, techniques, or materials.
Source: Item 23 — RECEIPT (FDD pages 99–350)
What This Means (2025 FDD)
According to the 2025 Noodles & Company Franchise Disclosure Document, any recipes, processes, ideas, concepts, methods, and techniques that a franchisee creates in connection with their Noodles & Company restaurant must be promptly disclosed to Noodles & Company. If Noodles & Company adopts any of these creations as part of their system, they will be considered the sole and exclusive property of Noodles & Company. They will also be considered works made-for-hire for Noodles & Company.
This means that if a franchisee develops a successful recipe and Noodles & Company incorporates it into the broader Noodles & Company system, Noodles & Company will own the recipe outright. The franchisee essentially assigns all rights to the recipe to Noodles & Company upon its adoption into the system.
Noodles & Company may also require the franchisee to sign additional documents to further evidence their ownership and assist in securing intellectual property rights for the recipe or other materials. This clause ensures that Noodles & Company maintains control over its brand and menu offerings, even when franchisees contribute to the system's innovation.