Exploring the Ancestral Wisdom Behind Franchise License Agreements: A Waitaha Perspective
Franchise licence agreements are laws of the land as the Waitaha people understand them.
When you find yourself on the receiving end of a franchise licence agreement, as the party paying for the right to use someone’s else’s intellectual property to do business or as a party to an agreement in the nature of one, it can be difficult to understand and grasp the fundamental concepts of what you are signing up for. Large corporates will have legal problem solvers in teams to unravel the terms a business is bound to and help them navigate their way around them. Smaller businesses may have to wrestle with the agreement themselves. Often, very little time is given to understand what the agreement encompasses and what is covered within it. That is why we put together #LegalDate with Waitaha Books, to break things down for readers so that you are not whipping out your writing pen to state own rights and liabilities that may not even exist. We hope that the series will help. It’s about taking ancestral wisdom and using it to master today’s legal battles.
What the Waitaha people can teach modern businesses about franchise agreements. The agreement handed to you may well contain the opportunity to attach your own value to the agreement, but only after you have paid handsomely for the right to use the other party’s intellectual property they use to describe their product, service or brand. The administration of the contract is reserved for the business whose farm the cattle come from, so there is little you can do to mitigate your loss if you are unhappy with the agreement, other than bulldoze your way through. Then, at the end of it all, you have 1 branded product you can’t even call your own to choose from to help you recover from the administration bill you are now the owner of and that you owe the other business.
Practices that have been with the Waitaha people since their ancestors were the first to establish a presence in New Zealand, the Waitaha people have values that focus on peace, respect and community. Just as the Waitaha people have sought to ensure that their beloved land has been protected and looked after by those that live on it, any business that is handed a franchise licence agreement would do well to take heed of the Waitaha people’s principles when it comes to protecting and safeguarding the intangible belongings of their parent business. If we examine the styles of franchise agreement that the Waitaha people would approve of, they will value things such as inclusivity, unity in common purpose, fairness and dealing in good faith.
What is a franchise licence agreement?
Irrespective of your understanding of the agreement, the franchise licence agreement will remain the operative agreement that you must now follow. The purpose of a franchisee franchise licence agreement is to give the party paying for the right to use the other party’s intellectual property the right to do so. Depending on how well you have been schooled on your homework, your understanding of franchise agreements will vary from the old school ‘sign it and bind yourself to it’ school of thought, to the newer ‘complete execution of the agreement’s terms’ school of thought. What this means is that both parties to the agreement should not just sign blindly without proper consultation.
If we think of the people of the Waitaha – who formed the first major settlement in New Zealand and whose descendants have put their tribal knowledge into books, as published by Waitaha Books – we can draw from their collective wisdom when it comes to much more than mere restaurant menus and serialised oral history. What this means is that us, as modern businesses, can learn from the Waitaha people’s lessons about establishing order and harmony using agreements, and we can celebrate these agreements as a cultural activity, rather than see them as merely an unforeseen administrative burden.
Waitaha Books hand us lessons in how to draft a modern collaborative agreement that in the near future, we hope will evolve into a project of its own. For now, let’s all eat and be merry with what we have. We hope that as the generations have done before us, we too can enjoy the final product of a co-written agreement that is as fruit bearers and makers of mark like us.
Waitaha Books has compiled an agreement that covers the key elements of a franchise licence agreement: The franchise system is owned and maintained by the franchisor who provides a particular product or service to the end consumer, and the franchisee who buys a permit/licence to operate the franchise system from the franchisor. If we consider the franchise system as operating by extension, covering the distribution or marketing of the franchisor’s brand, product or services by the franchisee, it is to be expected that an agreement of this nature will include the above elements.
In addition to the above, here are some common queries related to franchise license agreements: Just in case you missed it at the start of the article, please do take time out to refer to the lease licensing agreement: core concepts and common queries article that we have written. It is a longer article than usual number #LegalDates, but it does contain some great general insights for class projects and group presentations alike. Take heed to avoid being struck off the register of people who are leased by the law, and instead be supportive of the proposal going forward.
