也可以这么翻译：contract of mandate。并且，一般不翻译成：mandate contract
eg.
1.
中国大百科智慧藏- 繁 - [ 转为简体网页 ]【外文词条】contract of mandate 【作者】赵中孚 又称委托合同﹐即委任人委托受任人处理事务﹐受任人允许代为处理的合同。 委任合同具有下列法律特征﹕ 委任合同的缔结以委任人和受任人的相互信赖为基础。除特殊情况外﹐受任人必须亲自完成委托事务﹐ ...
140.137.101.73:8008/cpedia/Content.asp?ID=10541 - 15k - 补充材料 - 网页快照 - 类似网页
2。
委任合同—— 维客(wiki)委任合同contract of mandate. 又称委托合同，即委任人委托受任人处理事务，受任人允许代为处理的合同。 委任合同具有下列法律特征：①委任合同的缔结以委任人和受任人的相互信赖为基础。除特殊情况外，受任人必须亲自完成委托事务，不得将委托事务转委 ...
www.wiki.cn/wiki/委任合同 - 13k - 补充材料 - 网页快照 - 类似网页

3。
国际经济法网--国际商法如委任合同（contract of mandate）、商事代理合同或者雇佣合同等。内部关系的主要内容涉及被代理人和代理人之间的权利义务关系。内部关系通常受合同法或者劳动法调整，而不属于代理法调整的范围。相反，代理法主要调整代理人所拥有的拘束被代理人的权力 ...
www.ielaw.com.cn/article/default.asp?id=200 - 68k - 补充材料 - 网页快照 - 类似网页

同意把委托合同翻译为 commission contract，但是

是不是这儿应该翻译的是“技术开发合同”，所以提供 technology development contract 供参考。请参考下面的《中华人民共和国合同法》

1. http://www.cpcia.org/articleview.asp?id=156
...Section Two Technology Development Contract
Article 330 A technology development contract is a contract concluded in respect of the development of a new technology, product, technique or material and the associated system.
Technology development contracts include commissioned development contracts and cooperative development contracts.
A technology development contract shall be in written form...

当然，其中也有commissioning party这样的用法。

it is just a contract whereby a principal authorizes an agent to act on its behave or in its name. The principal is held responsible for the act of the agent or any result thereof.

such a contract may be called authorization contract, contract for commission, commission contract, contract of mandate, trust contract, agency contract, etc in terms of the subject matter of the contract

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Note added at 5 hrs (2007-04-21 02:01:11 GMT)
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in your case, the contract is one whereby the principal authorizes the developer to develop any technology which is to be developed on the basis of principal's existing technology. otherwise I don't think it will contitute a relation of authorization.

Section 2 Contracts for Technology Development

Article 330 A technology development contract refers to a contract concluded between the parties for purpose of conducting research in and development of new technologies, new products, new processes and new materials as well as their systems.

Technology development contracts include *** commissioned development contracts *** and cooperative development contracts.

A technology development contract shall be in written form.



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Note added at 20小时 (2007-04-21 16:51:21 GMT)
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技术开发（委托）合同 : this is technology development contract.
（委托）is in parenthesis meaning it is meant to decribe the tech. dev. contract, this should be transalted as a whole, they shouldn't be separated.

Chinese term (edited): 技术开发（委托）合同

The "commission contract" in the PRC contract law translation is simply verbatum translation, as opposed to general usage. I take the general usage to be "technology development agreement", with "commission" being implicit. If it is an agreement to develop technology jointly, then it's a "joint technology development agreement". Context should determine if you want general usage or PRC contract law verbatum translation.