Unless you feel that the backlinks generate enough additional traffic to your site to make the copyright violation worth any losses to you (net: an increase in your business), I would report it to the chain's headquarters, preferably with something that sounds like your lawyer is involved, and get the local franchisee thoroughly spanked. Just make sure that you aren't in the wrong by (mis)using their trademarks, etc. If you were pointing to their stores or something, they might claim that; but if you were just pointing out local landmarks and points of interest, they're clearly in the wrong. I would start at the top so that the franchisee can't wiggle and evade your direct complaint.

All content is implicitly copyrighted as soon as it's published. However, it never hurts to explicitly add a copyright statement.