Privacy policy

1. General information

1.1 What are personal data
Personal data is information that reveals or can reveal the identity of the user. We adhere to the principle of data avoidance. As far as possible, we refrain from collecting personal data.

1.2 Handling of personal data
Your personal data will only be processed if we have received your consent (Art. 6 (1 a) GDPR) or if the processing of such data is necessary for our legitimate interests and provided that it is not contrary to any overriding interests, fundamental rights or fundamental freedoms on your part (Art. 6 (1 f) GDPR).

We may use contract processors to process your personal data but will not pass on your personal data to third parties.

Your personal data will be processed exclusively within the EU unless otherwise stated below.

1.3 Usage data
General technical information is collected when visiting the website. This includes the IP address used, time of day, duration of the visit, browser type and, if applicable, the originating page. This usage data is registered in a log file for technical reasons and can be used and stored for the purpose of statistical evaluation of this website. This usage data is not linked to your other personal data.

1.4 Duration of storage
We store your personal data after the end of the purpose for which the data was collected, only as long as this is necessary due to legal (especially tax) regulations.

2. Your rights

2.1 Information
You can demand information from us as to whether we are processing personal data about you and, if this is the case, you have the right to be informed about this personal data and to receive the further information mentioned in Art. 15 GDPR.

2.2 Right of rectification
You have the right to have incorrect personal data concerning you corrected and, in accordance with Art. 16 GDPR, you can request the completion of incomplete personal data.

2.3 Right of deletion
You have the right to demand from us that the personal data concerning you be deleted immediately. We are obliged to delete them immediately, especially if one of the following reasons applies:
– Your personal data are no longer necessary for the purposes for which they were collected or otherwise processed.
– You revoke your consent on which the processing of your data was based and there is no other legal basis for the processing.
– Your data have been processed unlawfully.
The right to deletion does not apply insofar as your personal data is necessary for the assertion, exercise or defence of our legal claims.

2.4 Right to limit processing
You have the right to ask us to limit the processing of your personal data if
– you dispute the accuracy of the data and we, therefore, check the accuracy,
– the processing is unlawful and you refuse to delete it and instead request that its use be restricted
– we no longer need the data, but you need the data to assert, exercise or defend legal claims,
– you have lodged an objection to the processing of your data and it is not yet clear whether our legitimate reasons outweigh your reasons.

2.5 Right to data transferability
You have the right to receive the personal data concerning you that you have provided us within a structured, common and machine-readable format and you have the right to transfer this data to another person in charge without hindrance by us, provided that the processing is based on consent or a contract and that the processing is carried out by us using automated procedures.

2.6 Right of withdrawal
If the processing of your personal data is based on consent, you have the right to revoke this consent at any time.

2.7 General and right of appeal
The exercise of your aforementioned rights is, in principle, free of charge for you. You have the right to contact the supervisory authority responsible for us, the State Data Protection Commissioner, directly in the event of complaints.

3. Data security

3.1 Data security
All data on our website is protected by technical and organisational measures against loss, destruction, access, modification and distribution.

3.2 Sessions and cookies
For the operation of our website we use cookies or server-side sessions in which data can be stored. We ensure that no personal data is taken over from sessions or through cookies without your express consent and that cookies are only used if this is technically necessary for the website (e.g., spam protection for contact form, shopping basket function) and thus the weighing up shows that there are no predominant interests on your part that conflict with this (Art. 6 (1 f) GDPR) or that there is an express consent on your part.
With your express consent, we use cookies to personalise content and advertisements, to offer functions for social media and to analyse access to our website. With your consent, we can pass on the information on your use of our website to our partners for social media, advertising and analyses. Our partners may be able to combine this information with other data that the partners already have about you.
Below you will find the domain, name and duration of the cookies used only with your consent:

Third-party cookies
Google Analytics
www.google.gstatic.com

CloudFare
www.cloudflare.com

4. Presence on social media platforms

We use the following social media platforms for company presentation and communication (we expressly refer to the following linked data protection declarations and opt-out options).

LinkedIn (LinkedIn Ireland Unlimited Company Wilton Place, Dublin 2, Ireland)
Privacy policy https://www.linkedin.com/legal/privacy-policy
Opt-out: https://www.linkedin.com/psettings/guest-controls/retargeting-opt-out

Xing (XING AG, Dammtorstrasse 29-32, 20354 Hamburg, Germany)
Privacy policy and opt-out: https://privacy.xing.com/de/datenschutzerklaerung.

These social media platforms may process personal data outside the EU. We refer to the above data protection declarations of the social media platforms.

The respective social media platforms may create user profiles from your usage behaviour and the resulting interests and actions on your part and save cookies on your computer in which your usage behaviour is stored. If you have an account on the respective social media platform and are logged in, your usage behaviour can even be saved independently of the device. Your user profile can be used, for example, to place advertisements that presumably correspond to your interests.

We process the personal data exclusively for communication with you via the social media platform you have chosen and to optimise our online presence and ensure that no interests on your part are affected which outweigh this legitimate interest on our part (Art. 6 (1 f) GDPR). Insofar as you have already given the respective operator of the social media platform effective consent to the corresponding data processing, your personal data will also be processed based on this consent (Art. 6 (1 a) GDPR).

5. Services of third-party providers

5.1 Google Analytics

This website uses Google Analytics, a web analytics service provided by Google and operated by Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland (“Google”), and collects and stores data via this web analytics service from which usage profiles are created using pseudonyms. The user profiles created in this way are used to evaluate visitor behaviour in order to design and improve the offer presented on this website in line with requirements. Google Analytics uses so-called “cookies”, small text files which are stored on your computer and which enable an analysis of your use of the website. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website is usually transferred to a Google server in the USA and stored there. However, in the event that IP anonymisation is activated on this website, your IP address will be shortened by Google within member states of the European Union or in other states which are party to the Agreement on the European Economic Area before this happens. Only in exceptional cases will the full IP address be transferred to a Google server in the USA and shortened there. On behalf of the operator of this website, Google will use this information for the purpose of evaluating your use of the website, compiling reports on website activity and providing other services relating to website activity and internet usage for the website operator. The IP address transmitted by your browser within the framework of Google Analytics is not combined with other data from Google. The user profiles maintained under a pseudonym are also not merged with the personal data of the user without the express and separately declared consent of the user. This means that no overriding interests on your part stand in the way (Art. 6 (1 f) GDPR). You can prevent the storage of cookies by adjusting your browser software accordingly; however, we would like to point out that in this case you may not be able to use all the functions of this website to their full extent. You can also prevent the collection of data generated by the cookie and relating to your use of the website (including your IP address) to Google and the processing of this data by Google by downloading and installing the browser plugin available at the following link (http://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de)
You can also prevent the collection of your data by Google Analytics by clicking on the following link. An opt-out cookie is set to prevent the collection of your data during future visits to this website: Disable Google Analytics. You can view the Google data protection information at http://www.google.de/intl/de/policies/privacy/. You can find more information on the terms of use and data protection at http://www.google.com/analytics/terms/de.html or http://www.google.com/intl/de/analytics/privacyoverview.html. We would like to point out that on this website Google Analytics has been extended by the code “anonymizeIp” in order to ensure anonymous collection of IP addresses (so-called IP masking).

5.2 Live chat system from Zendesk (formerly Zopim)
We use the Zendesk Chat on our website, a live chat software provided by Zendesk Inc., 1019 Market St, San Francisco, CA 94103, USA. When you visit our website, pseudonymous data is collected and stored for the purpose of web analysis and to operate the live chat system, which is used to answer live support requests. From this pseudonymised data, user profiles can be created under a pseudonym. Cookies can be used for this purpose. Cookies are small text files that are stored locally in the cache of the Internet browser of the site visitor. Among other things, the cookies enable the recognition of the Internet browser. If the information collected in this way contains a personal reference, it is processed in accordance with Art. 6 (1 f) GDPR on the basis of our justified interest in effective customer service and the statistical analysis of user behaviour for optimisation purposes.

The data collected with Zendesk technologies will not be used to personally identify the visitor of this website and will not be merged with personal data about the bearer of the pseudonym without the separately given consent of the person concerned. In order to avoid the storage of Zendesk cookies, you can set your internet browser so that no cookies more can be stored on your computer or cookies already stored can be deleted. However, switching off all cookies may mean that some functions on our website can no longer be executed. You can deactivate the collection and storage of data for the purpose of creating a pseudonymised user profile at any time with effect for the future by sending us your objection informally by e-mail to the address given in the legal notice.

In addition, the Zendesk chat shows the user whether one of our employees is online to answer questions immediately. If you use the live chat system, the following data will be stored to answer your questions:

– Contact details (first and last name, e-mail address; only in case of use outside the corresponding times of use, the use of a pseudonym is possible)
– Your message

We use this data exclusively to answer your message in the best possible and personalised way. We have a legitimate interest in the processing of your chat request in the sense of Art. 6 (1 f) GDPR.

You yourself are responsible for the content of the message you send. Only the personal data that you send us in the chat will be collected. It may be necessary for us to require further data in order to reply to your enquiry, e.g. your e-mail address or your telephone number. However, we will only collect those personal data that are necessary to process and answer your enquiry. If you do not wish to provide any data, you can terminate the chat at any time.

The chat data is stored by Zendesk on a server in an EEA country.

If you do not agree to the collection of data via and storage of data in Zendesk’s external system, we will provide you with alternative means of contact to submit requests by e-mail, telephone, fax or post.

Information regarding Zendesk’s privacy policy can be found here: https://www.zendesk.de/company/customers-partners/privacy-policy/

5.3 Social media links
We have our own social media pages at the third-party providers that can be reached via links from this website. By using these links, you will reach the respective internet pages of the third-party providers (e.g., LinkedIn, Xing). In order to avoid unnecessary data transfer, we recommend that you log out of the respective third-party provider before using a corresponding link so that user profiles cannot be created by the third-party provider through the use of the link.

6. Contacting

If you wish to contact us regarding data protection, please use the following contact options. Responsible in the sense of the GDPR:

Valet Patent Services Limited
37 Berwick Lane
Stanford Rivers
Ongar
Essex CM59PZ
e-mail: mail@valetpatentservices.com
Phone: +49 8138 7584992