We collect, store and process personal data relating to client contacts and interests in compliance with the applicable data protection laws, including the UK General Data Protection Regulation (“UK GDPR”), the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“EU GDPR”) and the German Federal Data Protection Act (“BDSG”), as applicable.
The organisation is committed to being transparent about how it collects and uses that data and to meeting its data protection obligations.
1. Controller
Carpmaels & Ransford (München) PartGmbB, Oberanger 34-36, 80331 Munich, Germany (“CARPMAELS Germany”) is the data controller if you have a client relationship with CARPMAELS Germany.
Carpmaels & Ransford LLP, One Southampton Row, London, WC1B 5HA, United Kingdom is the data controller, if you have a client relationship with Carpmaels & Ransford LLP.
T: +44 20 7242 8692
E: [email protected]
Data Protection Team
Carpmaels & Ransford
One Southampton Row, London, WC1B 5HA
Tel: +44 (0)207 242 8692
2. The data we collect about you
Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).
We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together follows:
- Identity Data includes first name, maiden name, last name, username or similar identifier, title and nationality.Contact Data includes office address, email address and telephone numbers.
- Transaction Data includes details about payments to and from you and other details of services you have purchased from us.
- Technical Data includes internet protocol (IP) address, browser type and version, time zone setting and location, browser plug-in types and versions, operating system and platform and other technology on the devices you use to access this website.
- Profile Data includes your interests, preferences, feedback and survey responses.
- Usage Data includes information about how you use our website and services.
- Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) includes details of Intellectual Property matters that you are linked to or that affect you.
- Biographical information derived from correspondence between us.
We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature.
2. How your personal data is collected and stored
We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:
- Direct interactions: You may give us your identity and contact data by filling in forms or by corresponding with us in person, by post, phone, email or otherwise. This includes personal data you provide when you:
– apply for our services or provide instructions;
– request or are provided with advice; or
– give us some feedback.
- Client portals: You may give us your technical or personal data by logging onto, filling in forms or – in the UK – by corresponding with us via our online National Validation portal. This includes personal data you provide when you:
– log onto the portal;
– view case details;
– provide instructions; or
– contact us.
- Third parties or publicly available sources: We may receive personal data about you from various third parties and public sources as set out below:
– Intellectual Property Offices from around the global;
– other law firms or Intellectual Property specialists;
– patent searching databases;
– company registers or other public registers; or
– credit checking agencies.
3. How we use your personal data and the legal basis for doing so
We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:
- Where we need to perform the contract we are about to enter into or have entered into with you.
• Where it is necessary for our legitimate interests and your interests and fundamental rights do not override those interests.
• Where we need to comply with a legal or regulatory obligation.
Please refer to the ICO website (www.ico.org.uk) or refer to the glossary to find out more about the types of lawful basis that we will rely on to process your personal data.
You only need to provide the data that is necessary for the establishment and execution of a business relationship or for a pre-contractual relationship with us or that we are legally obliged to collect. If we request additional data from you, you will be informed separately about the voluntary nature of the information.
4. Purposes for which we will use your personal data
We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.
Note that we may process your personal data for more than one lawful ground depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the table below.
Like everyone involved in business, we are also subject to a large number of legal obligations. These are primarily legal requirements, but may also include regulatory or other official requirements. The purposes of processing may include identity and age verification, fraud and money laundering prevention, the prevention, combating and investigation of terrorist financing and criminal offences that endanger assets, the fulfilment of control and reporting obligations under tax law, the archiving of data for the purposes of data protection and data security as well as audits by tax and other authorities. In addition, the disclosure of data may become necessary in the context of official/judicial measures for the purposes of gathering evidence, criminal prosecution or the enforcement of civil law claims.
5. Cookies
You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. For more information about the cookies we use, please see our Cookie Policy.
6. Disclosures of your personal data
Please note that we provide our employees access to your data only on a need-to-know basis.
We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table above.
- Internal Third Parties as set out in the Glossary.
- External Third Parties as set out in the Glossary.
- Third parties to whom we may choose to sell, transfer, or merge parts of our business or our assets. Alternatively, we may seek to acquire other businesses or merge with them. If a change happens to our business, then the new owners may use your personal data in the same way as set out in this privacy notice.
Please note that in order to provide clients or potential clients with high-quality legal services, CARPMAELS Germany and Carpmaels & Ransford LLP are supported by Carpmaels & Ransford Services Limited. In connection with that support, or in order to provide the required legal advice, we may share your personal data with those Carpmaels companies pursuant to a data protection agreement (a copy of which can be provided upon request).
We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law and the applicable regulations on legal professional secrecy. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
7. International transfers
We will transfer your personal data outside the United Kingdom and/or European Economic Area (EEA) where necessary to ensure protection of your Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) in these areas. Any such transfer will always be made subject to appropriate technical and legal measures.
Your data is only transferred to countries outside the EU and the EEA (so-called third countries) if this is necessary in the context of processing or fulfilling our pre-contractual or contractual relationships with a client or other contractual partners (e.g. when using a law firm or tax consultancy based in a third country), is required by law (e.g. reporting obligations under tax law), if we have been given consent or as part of data processing. If service providers in a third country are used, they are obliged to comply with the level of data protection applicable in the EU by agreeing the EU standard data protection clauses. Alternatively, we may transfer the data on the basis of the Binding Corporate Rules or to countries for which an EU adequacy decision exists.
8. Data security
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorised way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so.
9. How long we will retain and use personal data of client contacts
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfil the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorised use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
In some circumstances we may anonymise your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
10. Your rights:
Please note that in addition to the rights set out in Section 6 of the Privacy Notice your right to request access to your personal data may be limited due to professional secrecy obligations under legal professional privilege / professional duty of confidentiality.
To exercise your rights, please contact our Data Protection Team using the details above. You also have the right at any time to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority:
- In the UK: International Commissioner´s Office
- In Germany: The Bavarian Data Protection Authority as the competent state authority responsible for CARPMAELS Germany.
We would appreciate the opportunity to resolve any concerns before you approach a supervisory authority.
11. Automated decision-making in individual cases (including profiling)
We do not use purely automated decision-making processes in the meaning of Art. 22 GDPR. Due to legal requirements, we are obliged to combat money laundering and fraud. Data evaluations (for payment transactions, among other things) are also carried out. These measures also serve to protect you.