Skilled professionals who provide advice and assistance to businesses are often called consultants. This can include software experts, engineers, marketing, accounting and finance experts and anyone else who calls himself or herself a consultant.
The agreement to be used for consultants is basically the same as the general IC agreement except that provisions regarding intellectual property ownership and confidentiality have been added.
Many consultants are hired to create or contribute to the creation of intellectual property—for example, computer software, important business documents, marketing plans, inventions and trademarks. This agreement provides that the consultant assigns—transfers—all ownership rights in such material to you. This avoids any possible dispute over who owns such material.
In addition, consultants often have access to valuable company trade secrets such as marketing plans, product information and financial information. You probably don’t want the consultant to blab about these things to your competitors. This agreement requires the consultant to keep your trade secrets confidential.