Get the legal steps for a franchise IP licence in the right order

It often starts with identifying exactly what is being licensed, such as trade marks, logos, operating methods, manuals or other brand assets, and then checking how that licence interacts with the broader franchise relationship. From there, the legal work usually moves to control settings, fee terms, permitted use rules, termination rights and any supporting documents needed for rollout. Sequencing matters because signing the licence too early, or without aligned franchise documents, can create inconsistencies that are harder to unwind later.

We will usually need the names of the parties, a summary of the franchise structure, details of the intellectual property being licensed, and any existing franchise or brand documents already in use. It also helps to know whether the licence is exclusive or limited, what fees or royalties are proposed, and whether there are operational rules around branding, marketing or system use. If there are regulator-facing steps or third-party consents in the background, that should be flagged early because it can affect timing and document structure.

A franchise IP licence usually needs tighter operational controls than a simple brand licence between unrelated businesses. The document may need to deal with quality control, approved branding, use of manuals and systems, restrictions on local variations, and what happens if the franchise relationship ends. It also needs to sit properly alongside the franchise agreement and disclosure material, rather than contradicting them. That is why a generic IP licence often misses practical franchising issues, especially around control and brand consistency across multiple operators.

That depends on the industry, the structure of the franchise network and whether any approvals, registrations or consents sit outside the parties' control. In some matters, a landlord, licensor, regulator or other stakeholder may need to approve a related step before the arrangement can move ahead cleanly. Regulator requirements can vary, and approval depends on the relevant regulator or authority. Our role is to help you understand where those dependencies sit and prepare the legal documents accordingly, but the fixed-fee does not include obtaining approvals or making third parties act within a particular timeframe.

Timing usually depends on how settled the commercial terms already are and whether the franchise documents are consistent from the outset. If the parties have agreed the main points and the brand assets are clearly identified, the legal work can move more quickly. If there are unresolved fee terms, missing documents, or third-party or regulator dependencies, the process can take longer. We can usually indicate the likely sequence early on, but Where an external authority is involved, we will help you understand what may be needed for your situation. so external steps may affect the overall timeline.

Just submit an enquiry via this page or click the 'get started' button on our website to submit an enquiry. After you've submitted an enquiry, one of our legal consultants will review your enquiry within 1 business day and get in touch to get a better idea of exactly what you are looking for.

Then your legal consultant will send through an email with a bit more information about the services you need, along with a fixed fee quote setting out costs, scope of the service and timing. Have a read through it, and if you're happy with the scope, you can accept and sign our engagement letter online - easy!

Once you've formally accepted, we'll connect you with a specialist lawyer and they will work with you to complete your project. They will contact you by email or phone if they need to get in touch.

Sprintlaw works on fixed-fee pricing wherever possible, so you can review the scope and cost before you decide whether to proceed. For the Franchise IP Licence service, pricing starts from $900.00.

After you enquire, a legal consultant will confirm what is included, the expected timing and whether any extra work is needed before you engage us.

We operate completely online, which means we can help you wherever you are in New Zealand. We have office spaces in Sydney, and in Melbourne, but our use of technology allows our team members to work remotely from around the world. Our legal team are mostly based in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. We also have a London office for Sprintlaw UK.

Our legal team is made up of experienced lawyers, who are specialists in various areas of law and hold an Australian legal practising certificate. None of our Sprintlaw lawyers are New Zealand qualified lawyers and they do not currently hold a New Zealand practising certificate.

They provide legal services working remotely from Australia via our 'legal consultancy' model, through which (under section 6 and section 35 of the New Zealand Lawyers and Conveyancers Act 2006) our Australian legal team are permitted to provide legal services to New Zealand businesses provided they do not provide services in certain 'reserved' areas of law. You can read our FAQ page to learn a bit more about our 'legal consultancy' model.

Given the strong similarities between Australian and New Zealand law, and the areas of law in which we practice (being small business and startup law), we do not view the fact that our lawyers have not qualified in New Zealand as having any substantive impact on the quality of our service. We are committed to ensuring that we provide high quality, affordable legal services to all our New Zealand clients.

Our legal team have all trained at leading firms, but have left the traditional corporate law world to join us on our mission to create a new and better way of delivering legal services. They have specialist expertise in technology law, intellectual property law, contract drafting and review, corporate law and commercial law.