Agreement · Intellectual Property — Patents, Trade Marks, Copyright, Designs
Research collaboration contract (Australian IP Toolkit for Collaboration and HERC IP Framework) — use guide
Guide to choosing and completing the Government's free collaboration templates: the IP Toolkit model term sheet, model contract and mini contract, and the HERC IP Framework for university collaborations, with updates needed since 2015.
- Kind
- Agreement. A contract between two or more parties.
- Where it applies
- Australia
- AI use
- Yellow AI can help in set ways. A lawyer checks specific points before use.
- Law stated as at
- 17 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked against the cited sources on 17 October 2026.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Link to the official form. Licence: CC BY 4.0 (stated in the IP Toolkit Model Contract, © Commonwealth of Australia 2015) — linked here, not reproduced
Where this comes from
The official form is published by ipaustralia.gov.au; this page is a completion guide. Last checked on 2026-10-17.
When to use it
Use when a business is funding or collaborating on research with a research organisation or another business and wants a recognised starting template. For university-industry research, start with the HERC IP Framework; for business collaborations, the IP Toolkit. Not suitable unchanged for overseas parties.
How AI may be used
AI may help mark up the template against the term sheet and list changes since the 2015 base text. The IP ownership model, publication rights and commercial terms are negotiated and settled by the lawyer.
AI may
- Populate Parts 2 and 3 of the model contract from an agreed term sheet and flag any option left unselected.
- Produce a comparison of the firm's marked-up version against the base template.
- List provisions that refer to law as at May 2015 for the lawyer to update.
AI must not
- Must not enter unpublished research data, invention disclosures or confidential project details into a consumer tool.
- Must not choose the Project IP ownership option or the publication regime.
- Must not present the 2015 text as current law without the lawyer's review.
The lawyer checks
- The right template is used for the value and type of collaboration.
- Background IP, Project IP ownership and licences match the commercial deal and each party's policies.
- Provisions referring to law current at May 2015 have been updated.
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Official form
Open the official form. Always use the current version from the issuer. Licence: CC BY 4.0 (stated in the IP Toolkit Model Contract, © Commonwealth of Australia 2015) — linked here, not reproduced.
Read the full text
The full text is for signed-in accounts. It is free. When you sign in you can:
- read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
- copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
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