Privacy Policy

Name and contact of the responsible data protection officer

Volker Wörz
Wörz Patentanwälte PartG mbB
Gablenberger Hauptstraße 32
D – 70186 Stuttgart
Germany

Tel.: +49 711 400 42 150
Fax: +49 711 400 42 159
Mail: info@woerz-patent.de

Security and protection of your personal data

We consider it our primary responsibility to maintain the confidentiality of the personal data you provide to us and to protect it from unauthorised access. We therefore take the utmost care and apply the latest security standards to ensure maximum protection of your personal data.

As a company under private law, we are subject to the provisions of the European Data Protection Regulation (DSGVO) and the regulations of the Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG). We have taken technical and organisational measures to ensure that the regulations on data protection are observed both by us and by our external service providers.

The legislator requires that personal data be processed in a lawful manner, in good faith and in a way that is comprehensible to the person concerned ("lawfulness, processing in good faith, transparency"). To ensure this, we inform you about the individual legal definitions that are also used in this privacy policy:

Personal data

"Personal data" means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (hereinafter "person concerned"); an identifiable natural person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly, in particular by reference to an identifier such as a name, an identification number, location data, an online identifier or to one or more factors specific to the physical, physiological, genetic, mental, economic, cultural or social identity of that natural person.

Processing

"Processing" means any operation or set of operations which is performed upon personal data, whether or not by automatic means, such as collection, recording, organisation, filing, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or combination, restriction, erasure or destruction.

Restriction of processing

"Restriction of processing" means the marking of stored personal data with the aim of limiting its future processing.

Profiling

"Profiling" means any automated processing of personal data which consists in using such personal data to evaluate certain personal aspects relating to a natural person, in particular to analyse or predict aspects relating to that natural person's performance at work, economic situation, health, personal preferences, interests, reliability, behaviour, location or change of location.

Pseudonymisation

"Pseudonymisation" means the processing of personal data in such a way that the personal data can no longer be attributed to a specific person without the use of additional information, provided that such additional information is kept separately and is subject to technical and organisational measures which ensure that the personal data cannot be attributed to an identified or identifiable natural person.

File system

"File system" means any structured collection of personal data accessible according to specified criteria, whether such collection is maintained in a centralised, decentralised or functional or geographical manner.

Controller

"Controller' means a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which alone or jointly with others determines the purposes and means of the processing of personal data; where the purposes and means of such processing are determined by Union or Member State law, the controller or the specific criteria for its designation may be provided for under Union or Member State law.

Processor

"Processor" means a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body which processes personal data on behalf of the controller.

Recipient

"Recipient" means a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body to whom personal data are disclosed, whether or not a third party. However, public authorities that may receive personal data in the context of a specific investigation mandate under Union or Member State law shall not be considered as recipients; the processing of such data by the said authorities shall be carried out in accordance with the applicable data protection rules in accordance with the purposes of the processing.

Third party

"Third party" means a natural or legal person, public authority, agency or other body, other than the person concerned, the controller, the processor and the persons authorised to process the personal data under the direct responsibility of the controller or the processor.

Consent

"Consent" of the person concerned means any freely given specific, informed and unambiguous indication of his or her wishes in the form of a statement or other unambiguous affirmative act by which the person concerned signals his or her agreement to the processing of personal data relating to him or her.

The processing of personal data is only lawful if there is a legal basis for the processing. Pursuant to Article 6 (1) lit. a - f DSGVO, the legal basis for processing may in particular be:

1. The person concerned has given consent to the processing of personal data relating to him or her for one or more specific purposes;
2. the processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which the person concerned is party or for the implementation of pre-contractual measures taken at the concerned person's request;
3. processing is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject;
4. the processing is necessary in order to protect the vital interests of the person concerned or of another natural person;
5. processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller;
6. processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests of the controller or of a third party, except where such interests are overridden by the interests or fundamental rights and freedoms of the person concerned which require the protection of personal data, in particular where the person concerned is a child.

In the following, we provide information about the collection of personal data when using our website. Personal data are e.g., name, address, e-mail addresses, user behaviour. If you contact us by e-mail or via a contact form, the data you provide (your e-mail address, name and telephone number, if applicable) will be stored by us in order to answer your questions. We delete the data accruing in this context after storage is no longer necessary, or processing is restricted if there are legal obligations to retain data.

Collection of personal data when visiting our website

When using our website for information purposes only, i.e., if you do not register or otherwise transmit information to us, we only collect the personal data that your browser transmits to our server. If you wish to view our website, we collect the following data, which is technically necessary for us to display our website to you and to ensure its stability and security (legal basis is Art. 6 para. 1 p. 1 lit. F DSGVO):

• IP address
• date and time of the request
• time zone difference to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)
• content of the request (specific page)
• access status / HTTP status code
• amount of data transferred in each case
• website from which the request came
• browser
• operating system and its interface
• language and version of the browser software

Children

Our offer is basically aimed at adults. Persons under the age of 18 should not transmit any personal data to us without the consent of their parents or legal guardians.

Withdrawal of consent

If the processing of personal data is based on consent given, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. The revocation of consent does not affect the lawfulness of the processing carried out on the basis of the consent until the revocation. You can contact us at any time to exercise your right of withdrawal.

Right to confirmation

You have the right to request confirmation from the controller as to whether we are processing personal data relating to you. You can request confirmation at any time using the contact details above.

Right of information

Where personal data is processed, you may at any time request information about that personal data and about the following:

1. the purposes of processing;
2. the categories of personal data processed;
3. the recipients or categories of recipients to whom the personal data have been or will be disclosed, in particular in the case of recipients in third countries or international organisations;
4. if possible, the planned duration for which the personal data will be stored or, if this is not possible, the criteria for determining this duration;
5. the existence of a right to obtain the rectification or erasure of personal data concerning you or to obtain the restriction of processing by the controller or a right to object to such processing;
6. the existence of a right of appeal to a supervisory authority;
7. if the personal data are not collected from the person concerned, any available information on the origin of the data;
8. the existence of automated decision-making, including profiling, pursuant to Art. 22 (1) and (4) of the DSVGO and - at least in those cases - meaningful information about the logic involved and the scope and intended effects of such processing for the person concerned.

If personal data are transferred to a third country or to an international organisation, you have the right to be informed about the appropriate safeguards pursuant to Article 46 DSGVO in connection with the transfer. We will provide a copy of the personal data that is the subject of the processing. For any further copies you request, we may charge a reasonable fee based on administrative costs. If you make the request electronically, the information will be provided in a commonly used electronic format unless otherwise specified. The right to receive a copy under paragraph 3 must not prejudice the rights and freedoms of other persons.

Right to correction

You have the right to request that we correct any inaccurate personal data relating to you without undue delay. Taking into account the purposes of the processing, you have the right to request that incomplete personal data be completed, including by means of a supplementary declaration.

Right to erasure ("right to be forgotten")

You have the right to request the controller to erase personal data relating to you without undue delay and we are obliged to erase personal data without undue delay if one of the following reasons applies:

1. The personal data are no longer necessary for the purposes for which they were collected or otherwise processed.
2. the person concerned withdraws the consent on which the processing was based pursuant to Article 6(1)(a) or Article 9(2)(a) of the DSGVO and there is no other legal basis for the processing.
3. the person concerned objects to the processing pursuant to Article 21(1) of the DSGVO and there are no overriding legitimate grounds for the processing, or the person concerned objects to the processing pursuant to Article 21(2) of the DSGVO.
4. the personal data have been processed unlawfully.
5. erasure of the personal data is necessary for compliance with a legal obligation under Union or Member State law to which the controller is subject.
6. the personal data have been collected in relation to information society services offered pursuant to Article 8(1) of the DSGVO.

Where the controller has made the personal data public and is obliged to erase it pursuant to paragraph 1, it shall take reasonable steps, including technical measures, having regard to the available technology and the cost of implementation, to inform data controllers which process the personal data that a person concerned has requested them to erase all links to, or copies or replications of, that personal data.

The right to erasure ("right to be forgotten") does not exist insofar as the processing is necessary:

1. To exercise the right to freedom of expression and information;
2. in compliance with a legal obligation which requires processing under Union or Member State law to which the controller is subject, or for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller;
3. for reasons of public interest in the field of public health pursuant to Article 9(2)(h) and (i) and Article 9(3) of the DSGVO;
4. for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes pursuant to Article 89(1) of the DSGVO, where the right referred to in paragraph 1 is likely to make impossible or seriously prejudice the achievement of the purposes of such processing; or
5. for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

Right to restriction of processing

You have the right to request us to restrict the processing of your personal data if one of the following conditions is met:

1. if the accuracy of the personal data is contested by the person concerned, for a period enabling the controller to verify the accuracy of the personal data,
2. if the processing is unlawful and the person concerned objects to the erasure of the personal data and requests instead the restriction of the use of the personal data,
3. if the controller no longer needs the personal data for the purposes of the processing but the person concerned needs it for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims,
4. if the person concerned has objected to the processing pursuant to Article 21(1) of the DSGVO, as long as it has not yet been determined whether the legitimate grounds of the controller override those of the person concerned.

Where processing has been restricted in accordance with the above conditions, such personal data shall - apart from being stored - only be processed with the consent of the person concerned or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims or for the protection of the rights of another natural or legal person or for reasons of substantial public interest of the Union or a Member State.

In order to exercise the right to restrict processing, the person concerned may contact us at any time using the contact details provided above.

Right to data portability

You have the right to receive the personal data concerning you that you have provided to us in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format, and you have the right to transfer this data to another controller without hindrance from the controller to whom the personal data was provided, provided that the processing is based on consent pursuant to Article 6(1)(a) or Article 9(2)(a) or on a contract pursuant to Article 6(1)(b) of the DSGVO and the processing is carried out using automated means.

When exercising the right to data portability pursuant to paragraph 1, you have the right to have the personal data transferred directly from one controller to another controller, where technically feasible. The exercise of the right to data portability is without prejudice to the right to erasure ("right to be forgotten"). This right does not apply to processing necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.

Right to object

You have the right to object at any time, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to the processing of personal data concerning you which is carried out on the basis of Article 6(1)(e) or (f) DSGVO; this also applies to profiling based on these provisions. The controller shall no longer process the personal data unless it can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override the interests, rights and freedoms of the person concerned, or for the establishment, exercise or defence of legal claims.

If personal data are processed for the purposes of direct marketing, you have the right to object at any time to processing of personal data concerning you for such marketing; this also applies to profiling insofar as it is related to such direct marketing. If you object to processing for direct marketing purposes, the personal data will no longer be processed for these purposes.

Notwithstanding Directive 2002/58/EC, in the context of the use of information society services, you may exercise your right to object by means of automated procedures using technical specifications. You have the right to object, on grounds relating to your particular situation, to the processing of personal data concerning you which is carried out for scientific or historical research purposes, or for statistical purposes as referred to in Article 89(1), unless the processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest.

You may exercise the right to object at any time by contacting the relevant controller.

Automated decisions in individual cases including profiling

You have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing - including profiling - which produces legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affects you. This does not apply if the decision

1. is necessary for the conclusion or performance of a contract between the person concerned and the controller,
2. is permissible under Union or Member State legislation to which the controller is subject and that legislation contains appropriate measures to safeguard the rights and freedoms and legitimate interests of the person concerned, or
3. is carried out with the express consent of the person concerned. The controller shall take reasonable steps to safeguard the rights and freedoms as well as the legitimate interests of the person concerned, which include at least the right to obtain the intervention of a person concerned on the part of the controller, to express his or her point of view and to contest the decision.

The person concerned may exercise this right at any time by contacting the relevant controller.

Right to complain to a supervisory authority

You also have the right, without prejudice to any other administrative or judicial remedy, to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority, in particular in the Member State of your residence, place of work or the place of the alleged infringement, if the person concerned considers that the processing of personal data relating to him or her infringes this Regulation.

Right to an effective judicial remedy

Without prejudice to any available administrative or non-judicial remedy, including the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority pursuant to Article 77 DSGVO, they shall have the right to an effective judicial remedy if they consider that their rights under this Regulation have been infringed as a result of the processing of their personal data not in compliance with this Regulation.