Mater Franchising arrangements are the flavor of the day as it provides the franchisor the benefit of the franchisee’s knowledge of the local environment; provides access to local sales and marketing expertise and channels; reduces investment; requires negligible government approvals; provides freedom from recruitment of local cell phone ticket toronto reduced workforce and consequently lowers the financial risk of the franchisor. The current regulatory restrictions on retail trading by foreign companies coupled with sustained economic growth; ever expanding market with a thriving class of urban consumers; quality consciousness amongst India consumers are some of the factors contribution to franchising being increasingly used as a model by foreign companies for entering India for the first time. A typical master franchise arrangement enables the master franchisee to develop the business in a given territory under the franchisor’s brand name and trademark with or without the right to manufacture the products in accordance with the franchisors’ operating guidelines coupled with assured financial returns to the franchisor.
There is a lot of discussion on the requirement of enacting a specialized law to regulate this growing sector in India. Before I proceed with my thoughts on the subject, I would like to quote a few lines from a report presented by the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT, an independent intergovernmental organization of which India is a member) which states that “the foundation of a successful franchising industry in any country lies in the existence of a “healthy commercial law environment” which has been defined as one with a ‘general legislation on commercial contracts, with an adequate company law, where there are sufficient notions of joint ventures, where intellectual property rights are in place and enforced and where companies can rely on ownership of trademarks and know-how as well as on confidentiality agreements’. The Indian legal environment is characterized by all these key attributes, a fact established by ever expanding international franchise relationships with India.
To evaluate the need for a new legislation, let us first understand some of the keys issues/concerns involving a franchising arrangement that generally leads to potential disputes or disconnects between the parties and how they are protected or can be protected within the realm of current Indian legislation:
(1) Licensing and Use of Intellectual Property Rights: IP rights are an integral part of all franchising arrangements and every franchising agreement involves transfer of some form of IP right, either as a license of a trademark/service mark/trade name, or a copyright, or a patent, invention, design or a trade secrets. The manner of use of the IP rights and their protection against misuse is one of the most important concerns of the Franchisor. Some of the disputes that arise during implementation of the franchise agreement relate to the scope and purpose of the trademark license, exclusivity of use and geographical scope, protection of confidentiality, extent of transfer of the know-how, misuse and damage caused to the brand and goodwill of the franchisor, etc. Similarly, post termination related issues include unauthorized use of the trademarks post termination, limited right to use the trademarks for the purposes of disposal of pending inventory (in the absence of which the inventory may go waste), destruction of stationary containing trademarks/trade names, return and ceassation of use of IP rights. India already has a host of IPR related laws including the Trademark Act of 1940, Copyright Act, 1957, the Patent Act, etc that provide for extensive protection and enforcement mechanism for the intellectual property rights including permanent and mandatory injunctions against infringement and passing off. India is also a signatory to the international conventions on intellectual property rights including the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), thereby offering protection to trademarks or brand names, as well as copyright and designs of the foreign franchisor. Recognition and protection is also extended to service marks in India enabling the foreign franchisor to license its mark to a franchisee to provide the services synonymous with him to the consumers in India. IPR laws have also been recently amended to make them compliant with exclusive right obligations under TRIPS and accordingly, the laws meet international standards for IPR protection. Even the Indian courts are quite sensitive and proactive with regard to enforcement of infringement actions. It is therefore evident it is not the absence of IPR laws or its enforcement that lead to potential disputes but lack of carefully drafted and negotiated agreements between the franchisor and the franchisee related to IPR issues that lead to potential IP related litigations.