Franchising law is essentially a commercial law practice area which, due to the special needs of this important industry, necessarily incorporates various legal skills normally associated with other, unrelated practice areas. For this reason it has attained, in Canada and internationally, the status of a distinct practice area. Generally the practice area includes documentation work including preparation of applications, franchise agreements, assignments, guarantees, indemnities and security agreements; regulatory compliance work including prospectus preparation, disclosure documents, and offering circulars; financing work which may include public offerings and private investment syndications; commercial leasing and other real estate arrangements; acquisition and sales work involving purchasing or disposing of new and existing franchises, as well as entire franchise systems; master franchise or area development agreements; international work which includes the establishment of foreign franchise systems in Canada and the Canadianization of foreign franchise documentation; intellectual property work including securing patents, copyright and particularly trade-mark protection; and sales and tax planning work which may include significant cross-border (particularly Canada-US) aspects.