APPENDIX A
License Agreement for Use of the UMLS®
Metathesaurus®
This is a copy of the
License Agreement for Use of the UMLS®
Metathesaurus® for the 2007AC Release from 11/5/2007. To
view or accept the current License Agreement for Use of the
UMLS® Metathesaurus® including the SNOMED
CT® Affiliate Licence Agreement go to: http://wwwcf.nlm.nih.gov/umlslicense/snomed/license.cfm | |
The License Agreement for 2007 is also available on the NLM website: (http://wwwcf.nlm.nih.gov/umlslicense/snomed/license.cfm).
NLM does not charge for the UMLS Knowledge Sources. Users of the UMLS
Metathesaurus may have to enter into separate license arrangements (See Appendix A.1 and
Appendix A.2 SNOMED
CT® Affiliate Licence Agreement) , which may involve charges, with the
copyright holders of some of the individual vocabularies that have been
incorporated in the UMLS Metathesaurus.
License Agreement for Use of the UMLS®
Metathesaurus®
This Agreement is made by and between the National Library of Medicine,
Department of Health and Human Services (hereinafter referred to as "NLM") and
the LICENSEE.
WHEREAS, the NLM was established by statute in order to assist the
advancement of medical and related sciences, and to aid the dissemination and
exchange of scientific and other information important to the progress of
medicine and to the public health (section 465 of the Public Health Service Act,
as amended (42 U.S.C. section 286)), and to carry out this purpose has been
authorized to develop the Unified Medical Language System® (UMLS) to facilitate
the retrieval and integration of machine-readable biomedical information from
disparate sources;
WHEREAS, the NLM's UMLS project has produced the UMLS Metathesaurus, a
machine-readable vocabulary knowledge source, that is useful in a variety of
settings;
WHEREAS, the LICENSEE is willing to use the UMLS Metathesaurus at its sole
risk and at no expense to NLM, which will result in information useful to NLM,
may provide immediate improvements in biomedical information transfer to
segments of the biomedical community, and is consistent with NLM's statutory
functions,
NOW THEREFORE, it is mutually agreed as follows:
- The NLM hereby grants a nonexclusive, non-transferable right to LICENSEE
to use the UMLS Metathesaurus and incorporate its content in any computer
applications or systems designed to improve access to biomedical information
of any type subject to the restrictions in other provisions of this Agreement.
The names and addresses of licensees authorized to use the UMLS products are
public information.
- No charges, usage fees, or royalties will be paid to NLM.
- LICENSEE is prohibited from distributing the UMLS Metathesaurus or subsets
of it, including individual vocabulary sources within the Metathesaurus,
except (a) as an integral part of computer applications developed by LICENSEE
for a purpose other than redistribution of vocabulary sources contained in the
UMLS Metathesaurus and (b) if permitted by paragraph 12 of this
agreement.
- LICENSEE agrees to inform NLM prior to distributing any application(s) in
which it is using the UMLS Metathesaurus and is encouraged to inform NLM of
any difficulties encountered in using the UMLS Metathesaurus, and changes or
enhancements to the UMLS Metathesaurus that would make it more useful to
LICENSEE and its user groups.
- Within 30 days of the end of any calendar year in which LICENSEE makes use
of the UMLS Metathesaurus, LICENSEE agrees to provide NLM with a brief report
on the usefulness of the UMLS Metathesaurus in general and, if applicable, on
the usefulness of CPT in the UMLS format in particular. LICENSEE is strongly
encouraged to submit to NLM locally developed extensions to the UMLS
Metathesaurus that are potentially useful to other UMLS users for
consideration for potential inclusion in the UMLS Metathesaurus.
- NLM represents that the data provided under this Agreement were formatted
with a reasonable standard of care, but makes no warranties express or
implied, including no warranty of merchantability or fitness for particular
purpose, regarding the accuracy or completeness of the data or that the
machine-readable copy is error free. Therefore, LICENSEE agrees to hold NLM,
the Government, and any organization contributing a vocabulary source to the
UMLS Metathesaurus free from any liability resulting from errors in
terminology or other data or on the machine-readable copy. NLM and such other
organizations disclaim any liability for any consequences due to use, misuse,
or interpretation of information contained or not contained in the UMLS
Metathesaurus.
- NLM represents that its ability to continue to include certain vocabulary
sources within the UMLS Metathesaurus is dependent on continuing contractual
relations or agreements with the copyright holders for these vocabulary
sources. Therefore, LICENSEE agrees to hold NLM and the individual copyright
holder free from any liability resulting from the removal of any vocabulary
source from future editions of the UMLS Metathesaurus.
- NLM reserves the right to change the type and format of its
machine-readable data. NLM agrees to inform LICENSEE of any changes to the
format of the UMLS Metathesaurus, EXCEPT the addition of entirely new data
elements to the Metathesaurus, at least 90 days before the data are
distributed.
- The presence in the UMLS Metathesaurus of vocabulary or data produced by
organizations other than NLM does not imply any endorsement of the UMLS
Metathesaurus by these organizations.
- LICENSEE shall acknowledge NLM as its source of the UMLS Metathesaurus,
citing the year and version number, in a suitable and customary manner but may
not in any way indicate or imply that NLM or any of the organizations whose
vocabulary sources are included in the UMLS has endorsed LICENSEE or its
products.
- Some of the Material in the UMLS Metathesaurus is from copyrighted
sources. If LICENSEE uses any material from copyrighted sources from the UMLS
Metathesaurus:
a) the LICENSEE is required to display in full, prior to
providing user access to the Metathesaurus or any of the vocabulary sources
within the UMLS, the following wording in order that its users be made aware
of these copyright constraints:
- "Some material in the UMLS Metathesaurus is from copyrighted sources of
the respective copyright holders. Users of the UMLS Metathesaurus are solely
responsible for compliance with any copyright, patent or trademark
restrictions and are referred to the copyright, patent or trademark notices
appearing in the original sources, all of which are hereby incorporated by
reference.";
to display a list of all of the vocabularies
contained within the UMLS Metathesaurus that are used in the LICENSEE's
application; and to indicate for each vocabulary any appropriate copyright
notice and whether the entire contents are present or only a portion of
it.
b) the LICENSEE is prohibited from altering UMLS and other
vocabulary source content contained within the UMLS Metathesaurus, but may
include content from other sources in applications that also contain content
from the UMLS Metathesaurus. The LICENSEE may not imply in any way that data
from other sources is part of the UMLS Metathesaurus or of any of its
vocabulary sources.
c) the LICENSEE is required to include in its
applications identifiers from the UMLS Metathesaurus such that the original
source vocabularies for any data obtained from the UMLS Metathesaurus can be
determined by reference to a complete version of the UMLS
Metathesaurus.
- For material in the UMLS Metathesaurus obtained from some sources
additional restrictions on LICENSEE's use may apply. The categories of
additional restrictions are described below. The list of UMLS Metathesaurus
Vocabulary Sources, which is part of this Agreement and is updated when each
version of the Metathesaurus is released, indicates the category of additional
restrictions, if any, that apply to each vocabulary source.
LICENSEE
should contact the copyright holder directly to discuss uses of a source
vocabulary beyond those allowed under this license agreement. If LICENSEE or
LICENSEE's end user has a separate agreement with the copyright holder for use
of a UMLS Metathesaurus source vocabulary, LICENSEE or LICENSEE's end user may
use vocabulary source content obtained from the UMLS Metathesaurus in
accordance with the terms of the separate agreement.
12. 1. Category 1:
LICENSEE is prohibited from
translating the vocabulary source into another language or from producing
other derivative works based on this single vocabulary source.
12. 2.
Category 2:
All category 1
restrictions AND
LICENSEE is prohibited from using the vocabulary
source in operational applications that create records or information
containing data from the vocabulary source. Use for data creation research or
product development is allowed.
12. 3. Category 3:
LICENSEE's right to use
material from the source vocabulary is restricted to internal use at the
LICENSEE's site(s) for research, product development, and statistical analysis
only. Internal use includes use by employees, faculty, and students of a
single institution at multiple sites. Notwithstanding the foregoing, use by
students is limited to doing research under the direct supervision of faculty.
Internal research, product development, and statistical analysis use expressly
excludes: use of material from these copyrighted sources in routine patient
data creation; incorporation of material from these copyrighted sources in any
publicly accessible computer-based information system or public electronic
bulletin board including the Internet; publishing or translating or creating
derivative works from material from these copyrighted sources; selling,
leasing, licensing, or otherwise making available material from these
copyrighted works to any unauthorized party; and copying for any purpose
except for back up or archival purposes.
LICENSEE may be required to
display special copyright, patent and/or trademark notices before displaying
content from the vocabulary source. Applicable notices are included in the
list of UMLS Metathesaurus Vocabulary sources, that is part of this
Agreement.
12. 4. Category
4:
- 12.4.1. LICENSEE is prohibited from translating the vocabulary source
into another language or from altering the vocabulary source content.
- 12.4.2. LICENSEE's right to use the vocabulary source is restricted to
use in the U.S. by LICENSEE's employees, contractors, faculty, students,
clients, patients, or constituents within electronic systems or devices
built, purchased, licensed, or used by LICENSEE for U.S. governmental
purposes or for any health care, public health, research, educational, or
statistical use in the U.S. Use by students is limited to research or
educational activities under the direct supervision of faculty.
- 12.4.3. LICENSEE has the right to distribute the vocabulary source in
the U.S., but only in combination with other UMLS Metathesaurus content.
Further, LICENSEE's right to distribute is restricted to:
-
- Electronic distribution to LICENSEE's direct U.S. affiliates, or to
other U.S. entities that have signed the UMLS license, in order to
facilitate use of the vocabulary for health care, public health, research,
educational or statistical purposes in the U.S. only.
- LICENSEE must take reasonable precautions to prevent distribution of
the vocabulary source to non-US entities.
- LICENSEE must include in its annual report a list of all U.S.
affiliates or other U.S. entities to whom it has distributed content
from the vocabulary source.
- Distribution of encoded patient level data sets or knowledge encoded
in the vocabulary source by LICENSEE to any U.S. entity for use in the
U.S. only.
- Inclusion of encoded records or content from the vocabulary source in:
(1) free publicly accessible retrieval systems or (2) fee-based retrieval
systems that are accessible within the U.S. only, provided that these
systems do not permit users to copy or extract any significant portion of
the vocabulary source.
- 12.4.4. DEFINITIONS
-
- U.S. is defined as all U.S. states, territories, and the District of
Columbia; any U.S. government facility or office, whether permanent or
temporary, wherever located; and access to a system in any of these
locations by U.S. government employees, designated representatives or
contractors, wherever located, for U.S. government purposes.
- U.S. entity is defined as (i) for government entities, an agency or
department of the U.S. Government, (ii) for corporations, as a corporation
incorporated and operating in the U.S.; and (iii) for other entities as an
entity organized under the laws of the U.S.
- LICENSEE shall take reasonable steps to ensure that anyone who has
authorized access to data or vocabulary sources from the UMLS Metathesaurus
under this Agreement complies with its provisions.
- LICENSEE and/or its end users shall be solely responsible for compliance
with any copyright or other restrictions on vocabulary sources in the UMLS
Metathesaurus; NLM assumes no responsibility or liability associated with the
LICENSEE's (or any of the LICENSEE's users) use and/or reproduction of
copyrighted material, patent or trademark violations. Anyone contemplating
reproduction of all or any portion of the UMLS Metathesaurus or any of its
vocabulary sources should consult legal counsel.
The holder of a
copyright in any vocabulary source shall be a third party beneficiary to this
agreement and shall have a right to enforce the agreement against any LICENSEE
that violates any provision pertaining to that copyright holder.
- This Agreement shall be effective until terminated by one of the parties
upon 30 days written notice to the other party. LICENSEE's failure to abide by
the terms of the Agreement shall be grounds for its termination. Neither the
Government, its employees, or any vocabulary sources contained in the UMLS
Metathesaurus shall be liable or responsible to LICENSEE in any manner
whatsoever for damages of any nature whatsoever arising from the termination
of this Agreement.
- In the event that any provision of this Agreement is determined to violate
any law or is unenforceable, the remainder of the Agreement shall remain in
full force and effect.
Send questions, comments about the UMLS project to: custserv@nlm.nih.gov or call
1-888-FINDNLM.
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