Can I license my trademark to a franchisee or distributor and still control how it's used?

Yes — licensing is exactly the mechanism that lets a franchisee or distributor use your trademark while you keep both ownership and meaningful control over how it is presented. A trademark licence agreement should specify exactly what the licensee can do with the mark, require your approval over how it appears in signage, packaging, and marketing, and include quality-control provisions letting you inspect and enforce brand standards.

This quality-control element is not just good business practice — under Canadian trademark law, a mark used by a licensee without the owner exercising real control over the character or quality of the associated goods or services risks becoming vulnerable to a claim that the mark has lost its distinctiveness. A well-drafted licence also addresses what happens if the relationship ends: the licensee must stop using the mark, and marketing materials or domain names built around the brand typically need to be surrendered or transferred back. For a franchise specifically, trademark licensing is usually one piece of a broader franchise agreement covering fees, territory, and operational standards, and getting the interplay between those documents right matters.