1. Niizuma Wasner GmbH (hereinafter ‘we’ or ‘us’) is a patent law firm based in Riehen, Canton of Basel-Stadt, Switzerland. In this privacy policy, we provide you with information on how and for what purposes we process your personal data (data that directly or indirectly identifies natural persons) and what rights you are entitled to.

2. Contact

Rresponsible for the processing described in this privacy policy is

Niizuma Wasner GmbH
Lörracherstrasse 122
P.O. Box
4125 Riehen
Switzerland

E-mail: mail@niizumawasner.com

If you have any questions about our handling of personal data or data protection concerns, please contact us at the above address.

3 Data processing in connection with our business activities

3.1 In the course of our business activities, including a client relationship, we obtain and process personal data mainly in order to provide, document, invoice and improve our services.

We process personal data about our clients, associated persons, counterparties, courts and authorities, law firms, professional and other associations, participants in events, recipients of newsletters and other bodies or their respective contact persons and employees.

In principle, we may obtain and otherwise process this data for the following purposes in particular:

- Communication with you or third parties
- Initiation and completion of contracts
- Administration and processing of contracts
- Operation of our website
- Improvement of our offers
- Registration for certain offers and services such as lectures, training and education and their follow-up
- Security purposes and access controls
- Compliance with laws, directives and recommendations from authorities and internal regulations
- Risk management and corporate governance
- Job applications
- Other purposes: Other purposes include, for example, training and education purposes and administrative purposes (e.g. accounting), as well as the protection of other legitimate interests.

3.2 Origin of the data

You provide us with some of the personal data yourself when you contact us by e-mail or telephone and enquire about our services. This includes, for example, your name and contact details as well as information about your role at the company or organisation for which you work or on whose behalf you are contacting us.

We also process personal data that we receive in our correspondence with third parties (e.g. clients, counterparties, authorities and courts as well as their employees or other contact persons), in particular in the context of the client relationship (e.g. name, contact details, information on the role of the persons concerned at the company or on the employment relationship).

We collect some personal data ourselves, e.g. from public registers or websites.

3.3 If you provide us with data about other persons (e.g. employee, inventor or designer details, family members, representatives, counterparties or other associated persons), we assume that you are authorised to do so, that the data is correct and that you have ensured that these persons have been informed of this disclosure, insofar as an obligation to provide information applies.

If you do not provide certain personal data, this may mean that it is not possible to provide the associated services or conclude a contract. We always indicate where the personal data we request is mandatory.

3.4 Microsoft Teams

We use the Microsoft Teams application to conduct conference calls, online meetings, video conferences and/or webinars (hereinafter: ‘Online Meetings’). Microsoft Teams is part of Microsoft 365, which is software from Microsoft Corporation, One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052-6399 USA. However, our contractual partner is Microsoft Ireland Operations Limited, One Microsoft Place, South County Business Park, Leopardstown, Dublin 18, Ireland.

Various types of data are processed when using Microsoft Teams. The scope of the data also depends on the data you provide before or when participating in an online meeting.

If we want to record online meetings, we will inform you transparently before the online meeting and - if necessary - ask for your consent. If it is necessary for the purposes of recording the results of an online meeting, we will record the chat content. However, this will not usually be the case.

4. Disclosure of personal data to third parties

In connection with the purposes listed in section 3, we transfer your personal data in particular to correspondence lawyers, external service providers and lawyers, clients and other contractual partners, authorities and courts, counterparties and their legal representatives. If necessary, we will obtain your consent for this.

In addition, data may be disclosed to other persons where the involvement of third parties results from the purposes set out in section 3. This applies, for example, to delivery recipients or payment recipients specified by you, third parties in the context of representation relationships (e.g. your lawyer or your bank) or persons involved in official or legal proceedings. We may also pass on your personal data to our supervisory authority, in particular if this is necessary in individual cases to release us from our professional obligation of confidentiality. As part of our corporate development, we may sell or acquire businesses, parts of businesses, assets or companies or enter into partnerships, which may also result in the disclosure of data (including from you, e.g. as a client or supplier or as their representative) to the persons involved in these transactions.

5. Transfer of personal data abroad

We process personal data within our area of responsibility in Switzerland or in the EU. However, we may transfer the personal data to recipients (such as clients, correspondence lawyers, external service providers, counterparties or authorities) who in turn process the personal data in other countries, including those that do not guarantee a level of data protection comparable to Swiss law.

When transferring personal data to recipients in a country without adequate data protection, we oblige them to provide appropriate data protection by using standard contractual clauses or rely on a legal exemption. For example, we may transfer your data to a country without adequate data protection if you have given your express consent, if it is necessary for the performance of a contract with you or with our contractual partner in your interest, to protect an overriding public interest, to establish, exercise or enforce legal claims before a court or other competent authority, if you have made the data generally accessible and have not expressly prohibited processing, if your data originates from a register provided for by law and we have fulfilled the legal requirements for access or to protect the life or physical integrity of you or a third party if it is not possible to obtain the necessary consent within a reasonable period of time.

6. Storage period and data security

We generally store and process your data for as long as required by our processing purposes, the statutory storage or documentation periods, our legitimate interests, in particular for documentation and evidence purposes of a client relationship, or an overriding public interest, or if storage is technically necessary (e.g. in the case of backups or document management systems). If there are no legal or contractual obligations or technical reasons to the contrary, we generally delete or anonymise your data after the storage or processing period has expired as part of our normal processes.

We take proportionate and reasonable precautions to protect personal data from loss, unauthorised modification or unauthorised access by third parties. We would like to point out that we may use external IT service providers in the course of managing the mandate. We then use certain IT services and means of communication that may be associated with data security risks (e.g. e-mail, video conferencing). It is your responsibility to inform us if you require special security measures.

7. Your Rights

You have certain rights in connection with our data processing. In particular, you may, in accordance with applicable law, request information about the processing of your personal data, have inaccurate personal data rectified, request the deletion of personal data, object to data processing, request the release of certain personal data in a standard electronic format or its transfer to other data controllers.

If you wish to exercise your rights against us, please contact us; our contact details can be found in Section 2. To prevent misuse, we must verify your identity (e.g., with a copy of your ID, if necessary).

Please note that conditions, exceptions, or limitations apply to these rights (e.g., to protect third parties or trade secrets or due to our professional obligation of confidentiality).

8. Use of our website

8.1 When you access our website, usage data, i.e. information of a general or technical nature, is automatically collected, such as the date of access, your IP address, the type of web browser and operating system used. This information is used to ensure and improve the functionality and user-friendliness of our website and to compile access statistics. This information does not allow us to draw any conclusions about your identity.

You can use our website and access the information provided there without disclosing your identity to us. Personal data provided when contacting us via the e-mail addresses stated on our website will be processed by us in accordance with this privacy policy.

8.2 Cookies

We may use cookies. Cookies - our own cookies (first-party cookies) as well as cookies from third parties whose services we use (third-party cookies) - are data that are stored in the browser. Such stored data need not be limited to traditional cookies in text form.

Cookies can be stored in the browser temporarily as ‘session cookies’ or for a certain period of time as so-called permanent cookies. ‘Session cookies’ are automatically deleted when the browser is closed. Permanent cookies have a specific storage period. In particular, cookies make it possible to recognise a browser the next time it visits our website and thus, for example, to measure the reach of our website.

Cookies can be completely or partially deactivated and deleted at any time in the browser settings. Without cookies, our website may no longer be fully available. We actively request your express consent to the use of cookies - at least if and to the extent necessary.

8.3 Google Maps

We use Google Maps API (Application Programming Interface, “Google Maps”) from Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland or Google Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Pkwy, Mountain View, CA 94043-1351, USA, on our websites for the visual display of geographical information (maps). By using Google Maps, information about the use of our websites, including your IP address, is transmitted to a Google server in the USA and stored there.

The legal basis for processing the data for this purpose is our legitimate interest pursuant to Art. 6 para. 1 lit. f GDPR. You can object to this data processing at any time (see section 14 “Contact”).

It is possible to deactivate Google Maps and prevent data transfers to Google if you deactivate JavaScript in your browser. However, we would like to point out that in this case you will not be able to use the map display.

For more information about the collection, processing and use of your data by Google and your rights in this regard, please see Google’s privacy policy at https://policies.google.com/privacy, as well as the additional terms of use for Google Maps or Google Earth at https://www.google.com/help/terms_maps/.

9 Valid version and changes to this privacy policy

This data protection declaration is not part of a contract with you; it is merely information about the type, scope and purpose of the use of personal data by Niizuma Wasner GmbH. We may unilaterally amend this privacy policy at any time and without notice. The version published on this website is the current version.