Unfair contract terms may be void if they are found to be unfair from 12 November 2016. From that date Section 23(1) of the Australian Consumer Law will provide that a term of a consumer contract or small business contract will be void if the term is unfair and the contract is a standard form contract. This will no doubt apply to many franchise agreements. The main purpose of the provision appears to be to remedy any perceived imbalance of bargaining power. Franchisors shou...

I had an interesting meeting with Tina Hay of Direct Marketing Solutions www.directmarketingsolutions.com.au yesterday. Franchisees using various social media platforms and creating a lot of content promoting the brand and franchise system can be an incredibly powerful tool for franchisors, franchisee systems and franchisees as a whole.  However, as many of you would be aware, the control of a franchisee's use of social media can be somewhat of a headache for franchisors. ...

Businesses constantly under estimate the value of the name and logo and don't take the relatively inexpensive steps to protect that important intellectual property. Sometimes, even global businesses can get it wrong.  Whilst IKEA had registered its trade mark in Indonesia it seems it did not comply with the rules in that region to maintain the trade mark. IKEA didn't use the trade mark for commercial purposes for a period of 3 or more years consecutive years.  It ...