---
title: "Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) clause for project, commission and publication contracts"
url: "https://ailawframework.com/precedents/native-title-and-first-nations-legal-work/icip-clause-for-project-and-publication-contracts"
type: "precedent"
site: "AI Law Framework"
id: "a36-icip-clause-for-project-and-publication-contracts"
area_id: "A36"
kind: "clause"
ai_level: "yellow"
version: 1
task_ids: ["A36-A20260923-3"]
law_stated_as_at: "2026-10-18"
---

# Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP) clause for project, commission and publication contracts

> Contract clause that protects ICIP beyond copyright: acknowledges the community as custodian, limits use to the consented purpose, requires new consent for new uses, protects secret and sacred material, sets…

Canonical page: https://ailawframework.com/precedents/native-title-and-first-nations-legal-work/icip-clause-for-project-and-publication-contracts  
Law stated as at: 2026-10-18

Site index for agents: https://ailawframework.com/llms.txt

Contract clause that protects ICIP beyond copyright: acknowledges the community as custodian, limits use to the consented purpose, requires new consent for new uses, protects secret and sacred material, sets attribution and benefit sharing, and survives the contract.

## Key facts

- Kind: Clause. Wording to drop into a longer document.
- Practice area: [Native Title & First Nations Legal Work](https://ailawframework.com/precedents/native-title-and-first-nations-legal-work.md)
- Jurisdictions: Australia
- AI level: Yellow. AI can help in set ways. A lawyer checks specific points before use.
- Law stated as at: 2026-10-18
- Status: Maintained. Checked on 2026-10-18 against the 3 authorities it cites, for Australia.

## When to use it

Use in commissions, publishing, film, design, museum, tourism, research and infrastructure contracts that use First Nations stories, designs, language, knowledge, images or performances. Use it whether you act for the First Nations party or the commissioning party, and settle the schedule with the Traditional Owners or community authority, not for them.

## Used for these tasks

- [Extract benefit-schedule and heritage-protocol terms from a land-use agreement](https://ailawframework.com/practice/native-title-and-first-nations-legal-work.md#A36-A20260923-3)

## How AI may be used

AI may adapt the clause to the contract’s defined terms and extract the agreed permitted uses into the schedule; the lawyer settles every term with the community’s authorised representatives, and nothing cultural is described in the schedule without their consent.

**AI may:**

- Align the clause with the contract’s definitions, licence, termination and dispute clauses and list inconsistencies
- Transfer the permitted uses, attribution wording and payments agreed in writing by the community into the schedule exactly as agreed
- Check the rest of the contract for licences, assignments, AI-training or archiving rights that would override this clause

**AI must not:**

- Must not describe, summarise or interpret the cultural material, its meaning or its restrictions; the community decides what is written
- Must not identify who holds cultural authority or who must consent; that comes from the community’s own processes
- Must not be given secret, sacred or restricted material, or images of deceased people, for any purpose

**The lawyer checks:**

- The people giving consent have authority under the community’s own processes, and the consent is recorded in writing for the stated purpose only
- No other clause (licence, assignment, moral rights consent, AI training, archiving) grants wider rights than the ICIP schedule permits
- Attribution wording, cultural warnings and benefit sharing in the schedule are the community’s own words
- The clause survives termination and binds sublicensees and assignees

## Authorities

- [Australia Council for the Arts (now Creative Australia), Protocols for using First Nations Cultural and Intellectual Property in the Arts (2019), Parts 1.3 and 1.4 (the ten principles, including communication, consultation and consent; secrecy and confidentiality; attribution; benefit sharing; continuing cultures)](https://creative.gov.au/sites/creative-australia/files/documents/2025-04/protocols-for-using-first-nati-5f72716d09f01.pdf)
- [Creative Australia, Protocols for using First Nations cultural and intellectual property in the arts (compliance is a condition of funding for projects funded by its assessment panels)](https://creative.gov.au/first-nations-arts/protocols-for-using-first-nations-cultural-and-intellectual-property-in-the-arts)
- [Australia Council for the Arts, Protocols for using First Nations Cultural and Intellectual Property in the Arts (2019), Part 1.2.5 (current Australian protections: copyright, moral rights, communal ownership and joint ownership, no communal moral rights)](https://creative.gov.au/sites/creative-australia/files/documents/2025-04/protocols-for-using-first-nati-5f72716d09f01.pdf)

## Full text and drafting notes

The full text and the drafting notes are not part of this public page. Signed-in firm accounts can read them at https://ailawframework.com/precedents/native-title-and-first-nations-legal-work/icip-clause-for-project-and-publication-contracts and through the signed-in MCP connector https://ailawframework.com/mcp/firm.

*Practice guidance for planning and review. Confirm current primary sources and the requirements of the actual matter. This is general information, not legal advice.*