The intellectual property portfolio—patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets—comprises some of a franchise's most valuable assets. While trademarks are generally thought to be the most important franchise asset, a successful franchise has no shortage of copyrightable works—advertising and marketing materials, commercials and jingles, graphic designs and photos, architectural designs, software, operations manuals and training materials.

Since 1978, copyright attaches the moment a work is "fixed in a tangible medium of expression," 17 U.S.C. Section 102, which, often, is the moment of creation. But a copyright owner cannot sue for copyright infringement unless it first applies for and obtain a registration with the U.S. Copyright Office. And while franchisors invest heavily in their trademark portfolio, the same does not seem to be true for copyright assets.

As of January, a Copyright Office search for one prominent fast-food franchise yielded a mere 167 entries since 1978. A search for copyright registrations owned by other large franchisors uncovered only a few, each with 10 or less registrations. These searches suggest that some of the largest and most lucrative franchises likely own very few copyright registrations that are necessary to protect their copyright assets in federal court. One possible explanation for these low numbers may be that enforcing copyrights in federal court is expensive, and franchisors simply have not seen the value of obtaining a copyright registration for every copyrightable asset.