HL7 Ready to Release Intellectual Property for Free

Standards development organization Health Level Seven International, effective April 1, soon will execute on a promise in September 2012 to make much of its intellectual property available via a free license.

The free property includes all published standards, domain analysis models, profiles and implementation guides. HL7 also will make free other select intellectual property, such as implementation tools, determined on a case-by-case basis. The intellectual property will not be licensed on the open source market, under which other developers may make enhancements. The freely available property means the content must be licensed for use but the license is free.

HL7 released the initial timeline for making the intellectual property available during HIMSS13 in New Orleans. The organization also expects later this year to revise its membership model with enhanced benefits, such as new services to assist with implementation of its standards, deep discounts to education and training programs, exclusive access to HL7 experts, HL7 conformance certification, and enhanced testing of individual expertise.