Collaboration Agreement

What is a Collaboration Agreement?

A Collaboration Agreement is an agreement between two parties looking to work together on a project.

The agreement covers all of the important aspects of the working relationship, including each party’s contributions, the share of profits, confidentiality, and Intellectual Property rights.

A collaboration agreement allows two parties to combine resources and expertise. It can help you enter new markets, deliver new products, pursue larger or more complex projects, grow your audience or achieve a competitive advantage.

A collaboration agreement is often used for a special one-off project between two brands or a business and an Influencer/Content Creator.

Who is this Collaboration Agreement for?

• Businesses looking to collaborate on a project
• Bloggers
• Influencers
• Content Creators
• Two brands looking to cobrand
• Suitable for all Australian states and territories

Do I need a contract for a collaboration?

Yes, absolutely! A contract protects both parties.

You need a properly written contract to enforce your rights and make sure your business is legally protected if something goes wrong.

A Collaboration Agreement will help set the ground rules in black and white, so everyone knows their obligations and how everything will work.

Other names for Collaboration Agreement

• Brand Partnership Agreement
• Influencer Agreement
• Co-Branding Agreement
• Project Collaboration Agreement
• Business Collaboration Agreement
• Strategic Alliance Agreement

What does our Collaboration Agreement template include?

Our Collaboration Agreement template covers everything you need in the contract:

• Schedule – summary of key details (deliverables, contributions etc.)
• Term – length of the agreement
• Deliverables – specific deliverables, including due dates and who is responsible
• Contributions of each party – what each party is bringing to the table
• Remuneration / Profit Share – how you will split profits (e.g. 50/50)
• Expenses – how you will split expenses
• Intellectual Property – who owns any IP created during the collaboration
• Management of the Collaboration – who is responsible for management
• Exclusivity – optional clause, allows you to make sure a brand collaboration is exclusive
• Insurance – the requirement for public liability and other insurance
• Confidentiality – protect your confidential information
• Termination – how either party can end the collaboration
• Dispute Resolution – what do if there is a disagreement
• General – standard contract clauses such as Assignment, Severance, Entire Agreement, Waiver and Governing Law

Can I use this contract for a collaboration with an Influencer?

Yes, you can use our Collaboration Agreement template for a project with a social media influencer.

Our contract includes all of the important terms you need, such as deliverables, cancelling the collaboration, and exclusivity. This is so you can manage expectations for yourself and the influencer.

What are some common issues with collaborations?

Here are some issues that often come up in collaborations:

1. Someone who isn’t pulling their weight on the project is demanding an equal share of the profit
2. One of the contributors wants to use their work in another project
3. Another contributor doesn’t want anything to do with you anymore and wants their work taken out
4. A third party sues you over something that one of the collaborators put in the project

A Collaboration Agreement will help you to avoid these issues. It gives clarity to everyone involved, so you know where you stand. 

How much will each party get paid?

You should negotiate before you start to work out how and when you will be paid and what the profit split will be, You could split everything 50/50, or you could choose a different percentage split.

Factors that could influence remuneration include the resources each party contributes (i.e. how much they put in!), how much time they spend on the collaboration or how much they sell (if you are working on a commission structure).

What about Intellectual Property?

It’s important to determine who owns any Intellectual Property created during the collaboration.

There are many different ways you can approach this:

1. Joint ownership of IP
2. Each party owns its own IP
3. Business owns IP and grants licence to other party
4. Partner owns IP created by business and business is licenced to use it

Our Collaboration Agreement template contains wording for each option, so you can choose which approach you want to go with for your own collaboration project.

Is a Collaboration Agreement the same as a Partnership Agreement?

No, they are different.

A Partnership Agreement is a contract formed when two or more people who go into business together formalise the terms of a Partnership business structure into an agreement.

A Collaboration Agreement is an agreement between two parties looking to work together on a specific project, but they are separate business entities.

Can we negotiate on the key terms of the agreement?

You bet!

Before you kick off your collaboration, you should discuss what each party is bringing to the table – including financial contributions, equipment/resources and “in-kind” (effort) contributions.

Don’t forget to decide how you will handle Intellectual Property and who owns it – we have included four different options for you to choose from in the template.

How can we make sure that we are exclusive?

Our Collaboration Agreement template includes an Exclusivity clause which you can choose to use to make sure the collaboration is exclusive, and the other party won’t work with other brands at the same time (including your competitors!).