Analysis On Law Matters Of Franchise

Franchise, as a modern business mode, has already been popular around the world and is developing very rapidly. Franchise is a business method based upon contracts, with the involvement of the contract law, the intellectual property law, the company law, the tort law and the competition law. The legal relations are very complicated, and they require comprehensive adjustment.Franchise originated from the United States. It has made tremendous development in developed Western countries, where relevant laws and regulations have been made and improved. China is late in the development of franchise. Currently, there is still no individual law on franchise, except for administrative regulations promulgated by the State Council, which is too simple and somewhat impracticable. There still remain some unsolved conflicts among other applicable laws and regulations, such as the conflict concerning trademarks and trade names. During the ten plus years of rapid development of franchise in China, many problems and disputes arose due to the lagging of law-making, as well as the law-related unconsciousness of parties of the franchise, which highlights many problems concerning policy and legal environment and enforcement faced by franchise. The most significant legal problems of franchise are the protection of intellectual property and the agreement-related matters in franchise. This article focuses on intellectual property and agreements concerning franchise. With China's accession into the WTO, international franchise organizations turn their eyes towards China one after another, and the domestic franchise organizations are faced with great opportunities as well as challenges. It can be predicted that China will meet a new tide of development of franchise. Therefore, it is extremely important both theoretically and realistically as to the healthy development of franchise in China to strengthen the research on the theory and the law on franchise, to use the advanced foreign experience for reference, to improve relevant laws and regulations, and to strengthen the legal sense of franchise enterprises.The article is composed of five chapters. The first chapter is an overview of franchise, mainly describing the concept, features and types of franchise, as well as the present situation of the development of franchise in China. The second chapter analyzes laws and regulations of franchise and their implementation in China, including successful experiences and introduction to the legislation of the United States and European countries where the development of franchise is mature. The third chapter analyzes intellectual property concerning franchise. Intellectual property is the core matter of franchise. The major objects of franchise include a package of intellectual property, such as trademarks, trade names, shop design, patent, patented technologies and business know-how. All these intellectual property matters exist in every aspect of franchise. Without intellectual property and relevant law protection, there is no franchise. This part focuses on trademark and business secrets in franchise, by means of case analysis. The fourth chapter analyzes agreements on franchise, including the nature, importance of agreements on franchise, as well as the rights and liabilities of parties of agreements on franchise and the basic elements of the aforesaid agreements. The chapter also analyzes the effect of pre-fixed standard clauses of agreements on franchise, by means of case analysis. The fifth chapter summarizes the whole article, and puts forward some thoughts and suggestions for improving laws and regulations on franchise of China.