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Legal
agreements
Most
agreements take the form of a master franchise or license holder.
These deals are often done on the basis of covering the entire
Kingdom. However, some international brands have settled on
agreements which regionalize the Kingdom into East, West and
Central, thus dealing with 3 major parties rather than one.
Another trend is to conclude a deal with prominent local parties
with the objective of covering the whole Gulf rather than just
Saudi.
It
is important to note that both the brand and the franchise agreement
need to be registered. Brand registration is an approximate
120 day exercise from the day of publication in the Government
Gazette. The period leading up to publication depends on the
quality of legal firm selected. The agreement registration follows
a route from the Saudi Embassy in the brand's country of origin
to the Ministry of Commerce in the Kingdom. Potential brands
wishing to enter the market would be well advised to judge potential
local parties on their ability to assist with and progress these
procedures.
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