The Franchise Agreement

The franchise or franchise, is a form of cooperation between entrepreneurs for the distribution of services and / or goods, suitable for those who want to start a new business but do not want to start from scratch, and prefers to affiliate their own company to a well-established brand . The franchise is in fact a collaboration agreement which sees the one hand a company with a formula established commercial (franchisor or franchisor) and the other a company or a natural person (affiliate, or franchisee) that adheres to this formula. The parent company, which may be a manufacturer or distributor of products or services of a particular brand or teaches, grants the franchisee, usually independent retailer, the right to market their products and / or services using the insignia of the 'franchisor as well as technical assistance and advice on working methods. In return, the affiliate agrees to comply with standards and models of management and production established by the franchisor. In general, all of this is offered by the franchisor to the franchisee in exchange for payment of a percentage of revenue (royalties) and / or an entry fee (fee) along with the respect of the norms that govern the contractual relationship. In Italy, the franchise is regulated by the Law of 6 May 2004, n. 129. The franchise agreement or franchise is defined by art. 1 of Law no. 129/04, as the contract between two economically independent legal entities under which one party grants to the other the availability, for consideration, a set of industrial or intellectual property rights relating to trade marks, trade names, brands, models utility, designs, copyrights, know-how, patents, service or technical and commercial advice, inserting the affiliate in a system comprising a plurality of affiliates throughout the area in order to market certain goods or services.