Thank you for making the Open COVID Pledge. Before we can upload or link to your announcement and your license, and before we can add you and your license to our database, we want to make you aware that we accept three categories of licenses. These categories help users understand their rights, and are organized accordingly on our website for ease of reference.
- Open COVID Licenses. First, we have developed a set of Open COVID Licenses (OCL) that may be adopted by any organization or individual taking the Pledge.
- Open COVID Compatible Licenses. Second, are licenses that provide a set of minimum use permissions and other terms that have either been determined to be compatible, or we determine are compatible with the OCL on a case-by-case basis based on criteria below (OCL Compatible Licenses).
- Open COVID Alternative Licenses Third, are those licenses that are not in the first or second groupings above, but that are still consistent with the Open COVID Pledge (OCL Alternative Licenses).
We welcome all licenses within these categories.
A. Open COVID Licenses (OCL)
- OCL-PC 1.0 (patent and copyright) v1.0
- OCL-PC 1.1 (patent and copyright) v1.1
- OCL-P 1.1 (patent) 1.1
- Any later versions of the licenses listed above
B. OCL Compatible Licenses
- Creative Commons licenses (copyright only)
- Any other license that meets the following criteria and contains at a minimum the following terms and conditions, and does not contain contradictory terms or conditions, subject to our prior review:
- A public offer. Your license must be available to the public so that any company, organization, or individual can accept and rely upon it, so long as they comply with its terms.
- Scope of rights granted. Your license must grant all rights necessary as a matter of (1) copyright and patent rights (inclusion of additional intellectual property rights is permissible), (2) patents only, or (3) copyrights only. The license may specify whether all or only some of your IP are licensed.
- Fees. The license must be royalty free and fully paid up for uses within the scope of the license.
- Regulatory Exclusions. To the extent applicable to the licensed intellectual property, a promise not to assert regulatory exclusivity in any jurisdiction, or seek judicial or regulatory relief, for use of that intellectual property.
- Duration. The duration of the license grant must begin no later than December 1, 2019, and end no earlier than the end of the COVID-19 Pandemic as declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) plus one year, but you may also specify a firm end date if the WHO has not by then declared the end of the pandemic, so long as it is no earlier than January 1, 2023.
- Field of use. Your license must allow use of the licensed IP for at least the purpose of diagnosing, preventing, containing, and treating COVID-19.
Your license may grant broader permissions than these minimums. Those might include, for example, a longer term than the minimum prescribed. However, if a license further conditions the permissions granted to the public, such as prohibiting commercial uses or conditioning use on sharing by users of their intellectual property (such as grantbacks, share-alike or copyleft), we will not consider it OCL Compatible, though it can be listed as an Alternative License (see below).
C. OCL Alternative Licenses
This group consists of licenses that are consistent with the Open COVID Pledge but that may contain terms that do not satisfy the terms and conditions of (A) or (B), above.
As of April 17, 2020
Updates to this page will be noted here