own a brand name as natural person and allow thai company to use it?

[shafty]

The following situation:

1. I would like to sign a contract for a franchise, if possible in my own name, as an individual person without a business in Thailand.
2. I would like to run this franchise through another (Thai) company, e.g. by giving them a contract that allows them to use the franchise for a fixed time frame (e.g. 1 year)
3. I would then later consider to register an own company and use the franchise for myself.

• The franchise-company doesn't have a problem with this
• I think everythink will work well with this (Thai company) but I don't want to give them the full rights over the franchise to reserve the right to manage it alone if they mess it up.

Is it possible for me as a natural person to sign these two contracts? Note: I will not make any income from allowing the Thai company to use the franchise.

Thanks for any help / ideas!

[Sunbelt Asia]

Technically you can register the franchise in your own name but difficulties could arise with that. Firstly would you be overseeing any of the operations or simply monitoring it? If overseeing then you would need a work permit. Also, it is important to note that you receiving royalties on a monthly basis from the company could raise red flags that you are working without a work permit.

You might want to consider setting up your own company that would then sell the franchise rights and would control the activities of the sub-franchisee. This way would be more legitimate so that you could work closely (and legally) with your sub-franchisee and your royalty income would not be viewed with suspicion.

[sunbeltlegal][/sunbeltlegal]