What uses of the Potbelly Sandwich Works marks are prohibited?
Potbelly_Sandwich_Works Franchise · 2025 FDDAnswer from 2025 FDD Document
You must follow our rules when you use the Marks, including giving proper notices of trademark registration and obtaining fictitious or assumed name registrations the law requires. You may not use any Mark in your corporate or legal business name; with modifying words, terms, designs, or symbols (except for those we license to you); in offering or selling any unauthorized services or products; or as part of any domain name, homepage, electronic address, or otherwise in connection with Electronic Media. ("Electronic Media" means the Internet, the World Wide Web, or any other similar proprietary or common carrier electronic delivery system, and materials (such as CD ROMs and USB data storage devices) facilitating the electronic communication of information.) If we discover your unauthorized use of the Marks, we may require you to destroy all offending items (with no reimbursement from us). To the extent you use any Mark in employment-related materials, you must include a clear disclaimer that you (and only you) are the employer of employees at the Shop and that we, as the franchisor of Potbelly Shops, are not their employer and do not engage in any employer-type activities for which only franchisees are responsible, such as employee selection, promotion, termination, hours worked, rates of pay, other benefits, work assigned, discipline, adjustment of grievances and complaints, and working conditions. You must obtain an acknowledgment (in the form we specify or approve) from all Shop employees that we are not their employer.
Source: Item 13 — TRADEMARKS (FDD pages 51–54)
What This Means (2025 FDD)
According to Potbelly Sandwich Works's 2025 Franchise Disclosure Document, franchisees must adhere to specific rules regarding the use of the company's trademarks. Franchisees are prohibited from using any Potbelly Sandwich Works mark in their corporate or legal business name. They also cannot use the marks with any modifications, including words, terms, designs, or symbols, unless those modifications are explicitly licensed to them by Potbelly Sandwich Works.
Furthermore, franchisees are not allowed to use the marks in connection with the offering or selling of any services or products that have not been authorized by Potbelly Sandwich Works. The marks cannot be used as part of any domain name, homepage, electronic address, or in any other way related to electronic media, which includes the Internet, the World Wide Web, and similar electronic delivery systems.
If a franchisee is found to be using the marks in an unauthorized manner, Potbelly Sandwich Works has the right to demand the destruction of all items that display the marks, and the franchisee will not be reimbursed for any associated costs. When using the Potbelly Sandwich Works marks in employment-related materials, franchisees must include a clear disclaimer stating that they are the employer of the shop's employees and that Potbelly Sandwich Works, as the franchisor, is not the employer. Franchisees must also obtain an acknowledgment from all shop employees confirming that Potbelly Sandwich Works is not their employer.