Franchising - Patents, trademarks...

Alright, so I know quite a bit about laws and such, but I've never dealt with franchising before. What all is needed to become a franchise? I'm about to start up a new business in August, and from MANY people, it's an awesome idea that people think I can make a ton of money from. Several people have brought up the idea of after the first year, to start franchising and such. I even have a well-known celebrity that's going to endorse the idea as a favor to one of my friends. So I know it's going to be a hit.

What do I need to do though... obtain a patent or trademark or something else?

... and yes, I'm going to talk to a lawyer, but want to research as much as I can beforehand so I don't have to spend a ton of time with the lawyer, thus paying an arm and a leg.

Any thoughts would be awesome.

Thanks.

I'm trying to get my head around what you're going to patent and what that has to do with a franchise? You must be thinking of a trademark which would protect your name, logo or other such marketing icons.

Example: Subway is a franchise. Each store is independently owned, but the name and logo is controlled by the parent corporation by trademark (and surely Jared himself is a trademark in some manner ...)

If you patented an invention allowing the rights to that patent would be more a licensing thing than a franchise...

As I said, I really don't know much about this area.... So yeah, I heard of franchising, patents, and trademarks, so through them all together in my post. So if I understand correctly, I would need a trademark on the name, logos, and such, and then I could franchise out from there.

Think I just got confused on patents and trademarks when I started reading some info I came across on the web....

Do you have any good links to help me learn more info on starting a franchise?

just as some preliminary information, franchies dont usually start out as franchises. Usually they start out much smaller, perhaps not with even having the intention of becoming a franchise.

Lets say you sell coffee, and you have really nice coffee and you make a zillion bucks a year. Well then later on bob comes around and says hey I want my own coffee shop, but I don't have the money required to create a new name and do all that marketing and advertising, instead I want to operate under someone elses name.

So bob contacts you, and you work out an agreement so that he can use your logos and whatnot in his own store so that the popularity of the franchise title might bring in customers (rather than making a no name "bobs coffee shop" that no one has heard of) in return he would pay you a annual fee to use your name. (of course this would all be on paper and there would be very specific terms on how bob is allowed to operate and such so that it doesn't hurt your brand name)

Basically, creating a franchise isn't that much different than creating any other business. Just if you plan to become a franchise you may want to adjust your business methods and plan ahead of time so that down the road it would look like a good idea to other people to use your franchise's name.