| Abstract [eng] |
Features of Interrelationship between Franchising and Licensing Agreements In today's widespread commercial circulation there are two independent types of commercial agreements – the franchise and licensing agreements. Because of the asymmetry of legal regulation of franchise and license agreements, basically leaving the license agreements for self-regulation, relations between the parties evolving in practice, can become significantly close to nature of the parties contractual commitments under franchise agreements. However, to this date, neither the legal doctrine or case law does not give a clear divide between those forms of commercial cooperation. Therefore the reciprocal relation between the franchise and licensing agreements is studied and analysed in this master‘s thesis. Also the main similarities and differences of the franchise and licensing agreements are excluded and described, emphasised the agreements‘ delimitation importance. In the first part of master‘s thesis the concept of franchise and license agreements is discussed. Also, the most characteristic features of the agreements are excluded in the first part of master‘s thesis. In the second part of master‘s thesis, focusing on the subject of the contracts and analysis of the essential conditions, as well as investigating the relation between parties‘ contractual obligations, which are inherent exclusively for the franchise agreements and nature of the parties‘ relations, created by the licensing agreements, and the factors influencing them, the interrelation between franchise and licensing agreements is assessed, thereby making the conclusion, that in trademark licensing cases, legal relationship between the parties becomes the closest to the franchise agreement by its nature. In the third part of master‘s thesis, it is assessed which series of factors may cause the trade mark license agreement being classificated as the franchise agreement. Meanwhile, the fourth part analyses if the consequences of franchise agreements, regulated in the Civil Code of the Republic of Lithuania are inherent to trademark licensing agreements. The main conclusion oh the master‘s thesis is considered that although some of the relations, between the parties of both franchise and licensing agreements, can lead to similar consequences, however the dissociation of those agreements is very important dealing with liability issues between the parties. Whereas, due to specific nature of the contractual obligations, the degree of risk, taken by the franchisor is much higher than the degree of the risk taken by the licensor, the franchisee has a much favorable position to defend their violated rights than the licensee. |
