diff --git a/clients/client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/clients/rest/resource/releases/SW360Release.java b/clients/client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/clients/rest/resource/releases/SW360Release.java
index a74c5e819a..87c3d2e882 100644
--- a/clients/client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/clients/rest/resource/releases/SW360Release.java
+++ b/clients/client/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/clients/rest/resource/releases/SW360Release.java
@@ -44,6 +44,7 @@ public final class SW360Release extends SW360HalResource<SW360ReleaseLinkObjects
     private boolean isProprietary;
     private String name;
     private String version;
+    private String declaredLicense;
     private String createdOn;
     private String cpeId;
     private String downloadurl;
@@ -175,13 +176,13 @@ public SW360Release setOverriddenLicense(String overriddenLicense) {
         return this;
     }
 
-    @JsonIgnore
+    @JsonInclude(JsonInclude.Include.NON_NULL)
     public String getDeclaredLicense() {
-        return additionalData.get(DECLARED_LICENSE_KEY);
+        return declaredLicense != null ? declaredLicense : additionalData.get(DECLARED_LICENSE_KEY);
     }
 
     public SW360Release setDeclaredLicense(String declaredLicense) {
-        additionalData.put(DECLARED_LICENSE_KEY, declaredLicense);
+        this.declaredLicense = declaredLicense;
         return this;
     }
 
@@ -326,6 +327,7 @@ public boolean shareIdentifier(SW360Release releaseCompare) {
     public SW360Release mergeWith(SW360Release releaseWithPrecedence) {
         name = getDominantGetterFromVariableMergeOrNull(releaseWithPrecedence, SW360Release::getName);
         version = getDominantGetterFromVariableMergeOrNull(releaseWithPrecedence, SW360Release::getVersion);
+        declaredLicense = getDominantGetterFromVariableMergeOrNull(releaseWithPrecedence, SW360Release::getDeclaredLicense);
         cpeId = getDominantGetterFromVariableMergeOrNull(releaseWithPrecedence, SW360Release::getCpeId);
         downloadurl = getDominantGetterFromVariableMergeOrNull(releaseWithPrecedence, SW360Release::getDownloadurl);
         if (releaseWithPrecedence.isSetMainLicenseIds()) {
@@ -385,13 +387,14 @@ public boolean equals(Object o) {
                 Objects.equals(externalIds, release.externalIds) &&
                 Objects.equals(additionalData, release.additionalData) &&
                 Objects.equals(createdOn, release.createdOn) &&
+                Objects.equals(declaredLicense, release.declaredLicense) &&
                 Objects.equals(sw360ClearingState, release.sw360ClearingState) &&
                 isProprietary == release.isProprietary;
     }
 
     @Override
     public int hashCode() {
-        return Objects.hash(super.hashCode(), name, version, cpeId, downloadurl, externalIds, additionalData,
+        return Objects.hash(super.hashCode(), name, version, declaredLicense, cpeId, downloadurl, externalIds, additionalData,
                 isProprietary, createdOn, sw360ClearingState);
     }
 
diff --git a/libraries/datahandler/src/main/thrift/components.thrift b/libraries/datahandler/src/main/thrift/components.thrift
index 6e405fbacd..d9d5eda7ed 100644
--- a/libraries/datahandler/src/main/thrift/components.thrift
+++ b/libraries/datahandler/src/main/thrift/components.thrift
@@ -264,6 +264,7 @@ struct Release {
 
     65: optional set<string> mainLicenseIds,
     66: optional set<string> otherLicenseIds,
+    67: optional string declaredLicense,
 
     40: optional Vendor vendor,
     41: optional string vendorId,
diff --git a/rest/resource-server/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/rest/resourceserver/core/JacksonCustomizations.java b/rest/resource-server/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/rest/resourceserver/core/JacksonCustomizations.java
index 611dfce7b6..bd10806a8f 100644
--- a/rest/resource-server/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/rest/resourceserver/core/JacksonCustomizations.java
+++ b/rest/resource-server/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/rest/resourceserver/core/JacksonCustomizations.java
@@ -1104,6 +1104,7 @@ public static abstract class RequestSummaryMixin extends RequestSummary {
                 "rolesIsSet",
                 "mainLicenseIdsIsSet",
                 "otherLicenseIdsIsSet",
+                "declaredLicenseIsSet",
                 "vendorIsSet",
                 "vendorIdIsSet",
                 "clearingInformationIsSet",
@@ -1231,6 +1232,7 @@ static abstract class ReleaseMixin extends Release {
                 "rolesIsSet",
                 "mainLicenseIdsIsSet",
                 "otherLicenseIdsIsSet",
+                "declaredLicenseIsSet",
                 "vendorIsSet",
                 "vendorIdIsSet",
                 "clearingInformationIsSet",
diff --git a/rest/resource-server/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/rest/resourceserver/core/RestControllerHelper.java b/rest/resource-server/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/rest/resourceserver/core/RestControllerHelper.java
index 5a7131402d..88a531b78e 100644
--- a/rest/resource-server/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/rest/resourceserver/core/RestControllerHelper.java
+++ b/rest/resource-server/src/main/java/org/eclipse/sw360/rest/resourceserver/core/RestControllerHelper.java
@@ -992,7 +992,7 @@ public Package convertToEmbeddedPackage(Package pkg) {
 
     public Release convertToEmbeddedReleaseWithDet(Release release) {
         List<String> fields = List.of("id", "name", "version", "cpeid", "createdBy", "createdOn", "componentId","componentType",
-                "additionalData", "clearingState", "mainLicenseIds", "binaryDownloadurl", "sourceCodeDownloadurl",
+                "additionalData", "clearingState", "declaredLicense", "mainLicenseIds", "binaryDownloadurl", "sourceCodeDownloadurl",
                 "releaseDate", "externalIds", "languages", "operatingSystems", "softwarePlatforms", "vendor",
                 "mainlineState", "packageIds");
         return convertToEmbeddedRelease(release, fields);
diff --git a/rest/resource-server/src/test/java/org/eclipse/sw360/rest/resourceserver/restdocs/ReleaseSpecTest.java b/rest/resource-server/src/test/java/org/eclipse/sw360/rest/resourceserver/restdocs/ReleaseSpecTest.java
index 647532ccbe..1c2476c8e3 100644
--- a/rest/resource-server/src/test/java/org/eclipse/sw360/rest/resourceserver/restdocs/ReleaseSpecTest.java
+++ b/rest/resource-server/src/test/java/org/eclipse/sw360/rest/resourceserver/restdocs/ReleaseSpecTest.java
@@ -284,6 +284,7 @@ public void before() throws TException, IOException {
         release.setLanguages(new HashSet<>(Arrays.asList("C++", "Java")));
         release.setMainLicenseIds(new HashSet<>(Arrays.asList("GPL-2.0-or-later", "Apache-2.0")));
         release.setOtherLicenseIds(new HashSet<>(Arrays.asList("MIT", "BSD-3-Clause")));
+        release.setDeclaredLicense("MIT OR GPL-2.0-or-later");
         release.setOperatingSystems(ImmutableSet.of("Windows", "Linux"));
         release.setSoftwarePlatforms(new HashSet<>(Arrays.asList("Java SE", ".NET")));
         release.setEccInformation(eccInformation);
@@ -759,6 +760,7 @@ public void should_document_get_release_all_details() throws Exception {
                                 subsectionWithPath("_embedded.sw360:releases.[]additionalData").description("A place to store additional data used by external tools").optional(),
                                 subsectionWithPath("_embedded.sw360:releases.[]releaseIdToRelationship").description("Release Id To Relationship of Release").optional(),
                                 subsectionWithPath("_embedded.sw360:releases.[]languages").description("The language of the component"),
+                                subsectionWithPath("_embedded.sw360:releases.[]declaredLicense").description("The declared SPDX license expression").optional(),
                                 subsectionWithPath("_embedded.sw360:releases.[]mainLicenseIds").description("An array of all main licenses").optional(),
                                 subsectionWithPath("_embedded.sw360:releases.[]otherLicenseIds").description("An array of all other licenses associated with the release").optional(),
                                 subsectionWithPath("_embedded.sw360:releases.[]operatingSystems").description("The OS on which the release operates"),
@@ -910,6 +912,7 @@ public void should_document_get_release() throws Exception {
                                 fieldWithPath("releaseDate").description("The date of this release"),
                                 fieldWithPath("createdOn").description("The creation date of the internal sw360 release"),
                                 fieldWithPath("componentType").description("The componentType of the release, possible values are " + Arrays.asList(ComponentType.values())),
+                                fieldWithPath("declaredLicense").description("The declared SPDX license expression").optional(),
                                 fieldWithPath("mainlineState").description("the mainline state of the release, possible values are: " + Arrays.asList(MainlineState.values())),
                                 subsectionWithPath("eccInformation").description("The eccInformation of this release"),
                                 fieldWithPath("sourceCodeDownloadurl").description("the source code download url of the release"),
@@ -1457,6 +1460,7 @@ private RestDocumentationResultHandler documentReleaseProperties() {
                         fieldWithPath("version").description("The version of the release"),
                         fieldWithPath("createdBy").description("Email of the release creator"),
                         fieldWithPath("cpeid").description("CpeId of the release"),
+                        fieldWithPath("declaredLicense").description("The declared SPDX license expression").optional(),
                         fieldWithPath("mainLicenseIds").description("An array of all main licenses"),
                         fieldWithPath("clearingState").description("The clearing of the release, possible values are " + Arrays.asList(ClearingState.values())),
                         fieldWithPath("releaseDate").description("The date of this release"),