Version valid from September 2, 2024
With this privacy policy, we, SCAMBIA PATENT SERVICES GMBH, describe how we collect and further process personal data. This privacy statement is not necessarily a comprehensive description of how we process data. It is possible that other data protection declarations apply to certain issues. The term “personal information” in this privacy statement means any information that identifies an individual or could reasonably be used to identify an individual. If you provide us with personal information about other people, such as work colleagues, please make sure that the persons concerned are aware of this privacy statement and only provide us with their information if you have the right to do so and that personal information is accurate. This privacy policy is in line with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”), the Swiss Data Protection Act (“DSG”) and the revised Swiss Data Protection Act (“RevDPA”). However, the application of these laws depends on the individual case.
The person responsible for data processing within the meaning of this data protection declaration (i.e. the person responsible) is SCAMBIA PATENT SERVICES GMBH, Christoph Merian-Ring 11, 4153 Reinach, unless we have informed you otherwise in individual cases. You can report data protection concerns to us using the following contact details: Thomas Sütterlin, thomas.suetterlin@scambia.ch.Sie can contact our data protection officer in accordance with Article 37 GDPR using the contact details above, who is also our representative in the EEA in accordance with Article 27 GDPR.
We primarily process personal data that we receive from our customers and other business partners and other persons as part of our business relationships with them or that we collect from users when operating our websites and applications. To the extent permitted by us, we obtain certain personal data from publicly available sources (e.g. debtor registers, land registers, commercial registers, press, Internet) or we receive such information from companies affiliated with SCAMBIA PATENT SERVICES GMBH, from authorities or other third parties. The data that we receive about you from third parties includes, in addition to data that you have provided to us directly, information from public registers, data that we receive as part of administrative or court proceedings, information in connection with your professional role and activity (e.g. to conclude and process contracts with your employer), information about you in the context of correspondence and discussions with third parties, credit information (if we do business to you personally), information about you that gives us are given by persons who are in contact with you (family, advisors, legal representatives, etc.) to conclude or process contracts with you or with your participation (e.g. references, your delivery address, powers of attorney), information about legal regulations such as anti-money laundering and export restrictions, bank details, information about insurance, our sales partners and other business partners for the purpose of ordering or providing services to you or by you (e.g. payments made, previous purchases), information found about you in the media or on the Internet (where provided in individual cases, e.g. in connection with applications, media reports, marketing/sales, etc.), your address and any interests and other socio-demographic data (for marketing purposes), data related to your use of our websites (e.g. IP address, MAC address of your smartphone or computer, information about your device and preferences, cookies, date and time of your visit, pages viewed, and content, applications used, referrals websites, localization data).
We use the collected data primarily to conclude and process contracts with our customers and business partners, in particular in connection with our research, monitoring and consulting activities on behalf of our customers and the purchase of products and services from our suppliers and subcontractors as well as to fulfill our domestic and foreign legal obligations. You can rely on our data processing in your capacity as an employee of such a customer or In addition, in accordance with applicable law and to the extent appropriate, we may process your personal data and the personal data of third parties for the following purposes that are in our (or, where applicable, that of a third party) legitimate interests, such as: providing and developing our products, services and websites, apps and other platforms on which we are active; communicating with third parties and processing their inquiries (e.g. applications, media inquiries); review and optimization of procedures for determining needs for the purpose of contacting customers directly and obtaining personal data from publicly available sources for customer acquisition; advertising and marketing (including organizing events), unless you have objected to the use of your data for this purpose (if you belong to our customer base and receive our advertising, you can object at any time and we will blacklist you against further advertising); market and opinion research, media monitoring; asserting legal claims and defending in litigation and regulatory proceedings; preventing and investigating crime and other misconduct (e.g. carrying out internal investigations, data analysis to combat fraud); ensuring our operations, including our IT, websites, apps and other devices; video surveillance to protect our home rights and other measures to ensure the security of our premises and facilities and to protect our employees and other people; and Assets owned or entrusted to us (such as access controls, visitor logs, network and mail scanners, telephone records); acquisition and sale of divisions, companies or parts of companies and other corporate transactions and the associated transfer of personal data as well as corporate governance measures and compliance with legal and regulatory obligations and internal regulations of SCAMBIA PATENT SERVICES GMBH.
If you have given us your consent to process your personal data for specific purposes (e.g. when signing up to receive newsletters or carrying out a background check), we process your personal data within the scope of and based on that consent, unless we have another legal basis where we need one. A given consent can be withdrawn at any time, but this does not affect the data processed before the withdrawal.
We generally use “cookies” and similar techniques on our websites and applications that allow your browser or device to be identified. A cookie is a small text file that is sent to your computer and automatically saved by the web browser on your computer or mobile device when you visit our websites or install our applications. If you visit our websites or use our applications again, we can recognize you even if we don't know your identity. In addition to cookies that are only used during a session and are deleted after you visit the website (“session cookies”), we can use cookies to store user configurations and other information for a specific period of time (e.g. 6 months) (“permanent cookies”). Regardless, you can set your browser to reject cookies, save them only for one session, or delete them prematurely. Most browsers are pre-set to accept cookies. We use persistent cookies to store user configurations (such as language, automatic login), to understand how you use our services and content, and to be able to show you tailored offers and advertising (which can also happen on websites from other companies; if we know your identity, these companies will not know your identity from us; they only know that the same user who visits their website has visited a particular website before). Some cookies are sent to you by us, others by business partners with whom we work. If you block cookies, it is possible that certain features (such as language settings, shopping cart, ordering processes) are no longer available to you. In accordance with applicable law, we may use visible and invisible image files in our email notifications, newsletters, and other marketing emails. When such image files are retrieved from our servers, we can determine whether and when you opened the email so that we can measure and better understand how you use and adapt our offerings. You can disable this in your email program, which is usually a default setting. By using our websites and applications and agreeing to receive email notifications, newsletters, and other marketing emails, you agree that we use such techniques. If you do not agree, you must configure your browser or email program accordingly or uninstall the application if the appropriate setting is not available. We may use Google Analytics or similar services on our websites and applications. These are third-party services that may be based in any country in the world (in the case of Google Analytics Google Ireland Ltd. (based in Ireland), Google Ireland relies on Google LLC (based in the United States) as a sub-processor (both “Google”, www.google.com) and which enable us to measure and evaluate the use of our websites (on an anonymized basis). For this purpose, permanent cookies are used, which are set by the service provider. We have configured the service so that Google abbreviates the IP addresses of visitors in Europe before they are redirected to the USA and can then no longer be traced. We've turned off the “Data Sharing” option and the “Signals” option. Although we can assume that the information we share with Google is not personal data for Google, it may be possible that Google can use the collected data to draw conclusions about the identity of visitors, create personal profiles and link this data to these people's Google accounts for its own purposes. If you have registered with the service provider, the service provider also knows your identity. In this case, your personal data will be processed by the service provider in accordance with its privacy policy. The service provider only provides us with data about the use of the respective website (but no personal information about you). In addition, we use plug-ins from social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Pinterest or Instagram on our websites. These are visible to you (typically based on the respective icons). We've configured these items to be disabled by default. If you activate them (by clicking on them), the operators of the respective social networks can record that you are on our website and where exactly you are on our websites and use this information for their own purposes. This processing of your personal data is the responsibility of the respective operator and is carried out in accordance with their data protection regulations. We do not receive any information about you from the respective operators.
As part of our business and in accordance with the data processing purposes set out in Section 3, we may transfer data to third parties, insofar as such transfer is permitted and we deem it appropriate so that they process the data for us or, where applicable, for their own purposes. In particular, the following categories of recipients may be affected: our service providers (within SCAMBIA PATENT SERVICES GMBH or externally, such as banks, insurance companies), including contract processors (such as IT providers); dealers, suppliers, subcontractors and other business partners; customers; domestic and foreign authorities or courts; the media; the public, including users of our websites and social media; competitors, industry organizations, associations, organizations and other institutions; acquirers or parties who are interested in acquiring businesses, companies or other activities of SCAMBIA PATENT SERVICES GMBH; other parties in potential or pending legal proceedings; (hereinafter recipients) Certain recipients may be located in Switzerland, but also in any other country in the world. In particular, you must expect that your data will be transferred to every country in which SCAMBIA PATENT SERVICES GMBH operates, as well as to other countries in Europe and the USA where our service providers are based (such as Microsoft, etc.). If a recipient is in a country without sufficient legal data protection, we oblige the recipient to comply with data protection (we use the revised standard contractual clauses of the European Commission, which you can access here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dec_impl/2021/914/oj?%29%2C=&locale=de unless the recipient is subject to a legally recognized set of rules to ensure data protection and we cannot rely on an exception. An exception may apply, for example, in the event of legal proceedings abroad, but also in cases where there is an overriding public interest or the fulfilment of a contract requires transfer, if you have given your consent or if the data has been made available by you in general and you have not objected to the processing.
We process and store your personal data for as long as is necessary to fulfill our contractual obligation and to comply with legal obligations or other purposes pursued with the processing, i.e. for the duration of the entire business relationship (from initiation, during execution of the contract to its termination) and also in accordance with legal storage and documentation requirements. Personal data may be retained for the period during which claims can be made against our company or as far as we otherwise.