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The Franchise Memorandum

The Franchise Memorandum

Posts in Internet.
Posted in Internet

In another recent decision a federal court in New Jersey denied the motion of Wyndham Worldwide Corporation, Wyndham Hotel Group, LLC, and Wyndham Hotel Management, Inc. (collectively, the "Wyndham Entities") to dismiss the complaint brought by the FTC for unfair or deceptive acts or practices based on breaches of the property management computer system used by the Wyndham franchisor and its franchisees. FTC v. Wyndham Worldwide Corp., 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 84913 (D.N.J. June 23, 2014). The FTC alleged that franchisor Wyndham Hotels and Resorts, along with its affiliates ...

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Posted in Internet

A federal court recently denied the motion of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts to dismiss a complaint brought by the Federal Trade Commission for unfair or deceptive acts or practices based on breaches of the property management computer system used by Wyndham and its franchisees. FTC v. Wyndham Worldwide Corp., 2014 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 47622 (D.N.J. Apr. 7, 2014). The FTC alleged that franchisor Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, along with its affiliates, engaged in (1) deceptive practices by misrepresenting that it used “industry standard practices” and “commercially reasonable ...

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As Gray Plant Mooty reported in Issue 157 of The GPMemorandum, the international corporation that controls internet domain names, ICANN, will soon allow companies to operate hundreds of new Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs)—URL extensions to the right of the “dot.” Examples include product and service groups such as .coffee, .food, and .restaurant, and geographic locations such as .boston and .nyc. A few hundred of the gTLDs that are expected to be approved are “open,” as opposed to being restricted to certain companies (e.g., .google) or other groups. The first group ...

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The Internet is undergoing a dramatic change that has significant implications for the use and protection of trademarks. June 13, 2012 marked “Reveal Day,” when the international corporation that controls domain names, Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), published identifying information about applications for 1,930 new Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs).

Until now, web addresses have, for the most part, ended in such familiar gTLD extensions as .com, .net, and .org. There are currently 22 such extensions. There are also 280 country code ...

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In Saccucci Auto Group v. American Honda Motor Co., 617 F.3d 14 (1st Cir. Aug. 4, 2010), the court held that a car manufacturer’s decision to suspend temporarily the sale by its dealers of extended warranty plans over the Internet did not violate the Rhode Island “Dealer Act.” Although Honda had allowed its dealers to sell extended warranties online since 1997, the practice had come under criticism by some dealers, including its Dealer Advisory Board, which complained that the lower prices offered for the plans over the Internet damaged goodwill with customers who were sold ...

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A federal district court in California ruled last month on the important issues surrounding the right of a franchisor to sell products via the Internet into a franchisee’s territory. In Stillwell v. RadioShack Corp., 2009 WL 3697995 (S.D. Cal. Nov. 2, 2009), a group of RadioShack franchisees sued RadioShack in connection with its direct internet sales to consumers. The franchise agreements (which had been globally modified by a past class action suit) granted the franchisees an “Area of Primary Responsibility” (AOPR), in which RadioShack would “not open a company store ...

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About this Publication

The Franchise Memorandum is a collection of postings on summaries of recent legal developments of interest to franchisors brought to you by Lathrop GPM LLP. 

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