IP Rights in Independent Consultant and Contractor Agreements | Practical Law
The ownership of IP rights in work product an independent consultant or contractor creates under contract with a company can be the subject of heavy negotiation. The company that engages the contractor to produce the work product typically expects to acquire outright ownership of all associated IP rights. The contractor, in turn, may resist transferring its IP rights in the work product in favor of granting the company a limited IP license. To avoid future conflict, the parties must expressly resolve these and other IP ownership issues in a well-wrought contractor or consultant services agreement.