Privacy

Any personal information you provide will be held securely and in accordance with the Data Protection Act 1998. The Intellectual Property Office personal information charter sets out how we handle and protect personal information.

From time to time, we may ask for further information about you (such as your name, job title, postal address, telephone, fax number and e-mail address) as part of online surveys or services. This information will be used to enable us to improve Intellectual Property Office digital content and services.

It may also be used occasionally to inform you about important changes to the web site and our services, where this is the case you will be given the opportunity to tell us if you do not want the information used for this purpose.

Secure view patent cases and documents service

Whilst the Intellectual Property Office takes all reasonable care in the provision of our services, we do not guarantee the accuracy of the data and information provided through this service, nor do we accept any responsibility for errors or omissions in the information which has been provided to us.

Personal information charter

The Intellectual Property Office personal information charter describes how we, look after your personal information. Laws including the Data Protection Act and Patents Acts govern our duties and your rights.

When we ask you for personal information, we will make sure we:

let you know why we need it
ask for what we need, and not collect too much or irrelevant information
protect it and nobody has access to it who shouldn’t
let you know if we share it with other organisations and if you can say no
don’t keep it longer than necessary
don’t make your personal information available for commercial use without your permission

In return, we ask you to help us to keep your information reliable and up to date by:

giving us accurate information
telling us as soon as possible about any changes, such as a new address.

Please email [email protected] or ring 0300 200 3000 if you want more details on:

the information we hold about you and how to ask us to correct any mistakes
the agreements we have with other organisations for sharing information
the information we publish as part of our statutory obligations
the circumstances where we can pass on your personal information without telling you, for example, to prevent and detect crime or to produce anonymised statistics
our instructions to staff on how to collect, use and delete your personal information
how we check the information we hold is accurate and up to date
how to make a complaint

Independent advice

Independent advice about data protection, privacy and data-sharing issues, is available from:

The Information Commissioner
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

Telephone: 01625 545 745
Fax: 01625 524 510

Website: www.ico.org.uk

Intellectual Property Office is an operating name of the Patent Office