Abstract: As an important public knowledge infrastructure invested by our state, STKOS Metathesaurus needs to formulate a reasonable and effective open license to protect intellectual property rights and related rights and interests, as well as realizing the sharing and utilization of project results by the whole society. This paper investigates and analyses open licensing of four international large vocabularies, summarizing main framework of such licenses and relevant legal rights provisions, which can provide reference for STKOS Metathesaurus. At the same time, the article points out that the design of STKOS Metathesaurus Open License should focus on the obligees’ demands, construction objectives, specific authorization content, licensing methods and other factors.

Key words: Open License, Vocabularies, Knowledge Organization, STKOS