Why does the UMLS Metathesaurus License include SNOMED CT?
The NLM is the U.S. Member of the IHTSDO and, as such, licensed to distribute SNOMED CT at no cost in accordance with the Member rights and responsibilities outlined in the IHTSDO’s Articles of Association. Once NLM became a Member of the IHTSDO we determined that the quickest way to begin distributing SNOMED CT was to include the terminology in our existing distribution system, the UMLS Metathesaurus. The new license terms have therefore been incorporated into the License Agreement for Use of the UMLS Metathesaurus.
