Privacy Policy

Last Updated: December 3, 2022

1.  Acceptance

This document sets forth INTA’s  Privacy Policy (“Privacy Policy” or “Policy”), applicable to users of the website of the International Trademark Association (“INTA”, “we”, or “us”) located at inta.org (including the main inta.org domain and its subdomains, collectively known as the “Site”). By accessing the Site, you acknowledge and accept these terms and conditions. If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, please contact INTA by emailing [email protected] or write to us at INTA Privacy Policy, International Trademark Association, 675 Third Avenue, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10017-5704, USA.

2. Our Commitment

INTA respects your concern about privacy. This Privacy Policy will tell you how we use and protect your personal information in connection with the Site or any other platform we may provide and any features, functions, products, services, materials or information we make available on or through the Site in existence now or in the future (collectively, the “Services”), and will describe the choices you have concerning our use of such information. Please read this Policy carefully. We may need to change this Policy from time to time in order to address new issues and reflect changes. We will post changes here so that you will always know what information we gather, how we might use that information, and whether we will disclose that information to anyone. Please refer to this Policy regularly.

3. Information We Collect and Purposes for Processing

Types of Information Collected by INTA:

In operating this Site and providing our Services, INTA may collect the following information about you: name, address, phone number, fax number, email address, demographic, credit card number, and/or other personal and financial information (collectively, “personal information”).

In addition to the foregoing, you acknowledge that we may also collect the following information:

Collection of IP addresses: When visiting any Internet site your unique address, called an “IP address,” is recorded. The amount of information about users made available from their IP addresses varies greatly, for instance depending on how they are connected to the Internet. INTA does not release any information about the collection of this address to any third parties.

Survey Information: Occasionally, INTA conducts surveys to assist in our strategic planning and development of our benefits and Services.  We may appoint third parties to do this on our behalf. Survey responses will only be shared with third parties, which may include the membership at large, on an aggregate basis. (E.g. 40% of INTA’s members have been practicing trademark law for over 10 years.)

Communications with INTA: If you contact us with a complaint or query, we may keep a record of the phone number or email address used to get in touch with us as well as the correspondence and the period of time to handle the query or request.

Website Usage Information: INTA also collects and archives technical website information about how visitors interact with our Site.  This may include Site statistics such as:

• The number of visitors to our Site;
• How long our visitors spend on our Site and how they navigate our pages;
• How visitors interact with the search functionality on our Site;
• What browsers our visitors use and what country they are located in; and
• The referring URL of a Site visit and/or what search terms or results might have brought a visitor to our Site.

This information is mainly processed by INTA in an anonymized or depersonalized format and is primarily used internally to provide better service to INTA members.

In addition to the purposes noted above, we may process your personal information for the following purposes:

• to provide you with the information and membership services you have requested and send you marketing materials;
• to communicate with you about your account, changes in policies or transactions;
• to authenticate your access to our Site;
• for system administration purposes and for internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research, statistical and survey purposes;
• to distinguish you from other users (for example to remember your log-in details);
• to monitor your use of our Site to improve the user experience and to ensure that content is presented in the most effective manner for you and for your device;
• to notify you of any changes to our Services; and
• to ensure that our Site is safe and secure; and to comply with applicable laws and regulations.

4. Legal Basis for Processing Your Personal Information

We will only process your personal information where we have a legal basis to do so. The legal basis will depend on the purposes for which we have collected and use your personal information. In almost every case the legal basis will be one of the following:

• Consent: For example, where you have provided your consent to receive certain marketing from us. You can withdraw your consent at any time, including by clicking on the “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of any marketing email we send you.
• Our legitimate business interests: Where it is necessary for us to understand our members, promote our Services and operate effectively as a professional organization, provided in each case that this is done in a legitimate way which does not unduly affect your privacy and other rights. For example, we will rely on this legal basis when we conduct certain analysis to understand our members in sufficient detail so we can tailor our resources to suit their needs.
• Performance of a contract with you (or in order to take steps prior to entering into a contract with you): For example, where you have applied to become a member of INTA and we need to use your contact details and payment information in order to process your membership application.
• Compliance with law: Where we are subject to a legal obligation and need to use your personal information in order to comply with that obligation.

5. Non-Disclosure

We will not share your personal information with any third parties except where:

• You have consented or asked us to share your information with third parties;
• Our organization, or substantially all our organization’s assets, are merged or acquired by a third party, in which case your personal information may form part of the transferred or merged assets;
• To provide anonymous statistical information about users of the Site and related usage information to reputable third parties;
• We are using a third party service provider to provide Services that involve data processing, and such disclosure is related to the Services being provided (e.g., in connection with processing payment transactions); or
• Where it is otherwise permitted by applicable law, or where we are required by law to do so.

In some cases, such as on discussion boards, blogs or other public forums, any personal information you provide may become publicly available to employees of INTA member organizations and possibly the general public. Users should be aware that when they voluntarily disclose personal information on such discussion boards, blogs or other public forums (e.g. user name and email address as used in a signature line), that information can be collected and used by others and may result in unsolicited messages from other posters or parties.

6. Where We Store Your Personal Information

The personal information that we collect may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside of your country which may have less strict data protection laws when compared to those in your country.

If you are located in the European Economic Area (the “EEA”), including the UK, the following text shall apply: The personal information that we collect may be transferred to, and stored at, a destination outside the EEA. Whenever we transfer your information outside of the EEA, we will take steps to ensure that appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your personal information and to treat it in accordance with this Privacy Policy. In these cases, we will rely on approved data transfer mechanisms (such as the EU “Standard Contractual Clauses”) to ensure your information is subject to adequate safeguards in the recipient country. You may contact us for a copy of the safeguards which we have put in place to protect your personal information and privacy rights in these circumstances.

7. How We Store Your Personal Information

We take steps to ensure that the personal information that you provide is retained for only as long as it is necessary for the purpose for which it was collected. After this period it will be deleted or in some cases anonymized. We may also keep a record of correspondence with you (for example if you have made a complaint) for as long as is necessary to protect us from a legal claim.

Where we have collected the personal information based on your consent and we have no other lawful basis to continue with that processing, if you subsequently withdraw your consent then we will delete your personal information. However, please note that where you unsubscribe from our marketing communications, we will keep a record of your email address to ensure we do not send you marketing emails in future.

8. Your Rights

Applicable data protection laws may give certain rights in relation to your personal information, including the right to object to and/or withdraw consent to the processing of your personal information, the right to access your personal information, and the ability to erase, restrict, or receive a machine-readable copy of your personal information. We will handle any requests to exercise your rights in accordance with applicable law, and you can contact us about your rights at any time by emailing us at [email protected].

In addition to the rights above, you may be able to bring a complaint to a data protection authority if you think we have processed your personal information in a manner which is unlawful. If you have such concerns we request that you initially contact us (using the contact details above) so that we can investigate, and hopefully resolve, your concerns.

9. Links

INTA provides links on our Site that will take the user to other sites or services. INTA does not control the content or links that appear on these other sites. In addition, these other sites or services, including their contents and links, may be constantly changing. The fact that we have made these links available to you is not an endorsement or recommendation to you by INTA. We provide these links only as a convenience. For more information please see the INTA Terms of Use.

Other companies linked to this Site may collect information about you when you view or click on these sites. We cannot control this collection of information. You should contact these content providers directly if you have any questions about their use of the information they collect. These sites and services may have their own privacy policies, or no policy at all. We encourage you to review the privacy policies of any third party sites or services before providing any of them with your personal information.

This Privacy Policy pertains to your use of our Site only. If you link to other websites, please review the privacy policies posted at those sites.

10. How We Respond to Do Not Track Signals

We do not currently respond to “do not track” signals or other mechanisms that might enable you to opt out of tracking on our Site. You can typically remove and reject cookies from the Services with your browser settings. Many browsers are set to accept cookies until you change your settings. If you remove or reject the cookies, it could affect how the Services work for you.

11. Children

We do not knowingly collect, maintain, or use personal information from children under 13 years of age, and no part of our Service is directed to children. If you learn that a child has provided us with personal information in violation of this Privacy Policy, then you may alert us at the email provided above.

12. Information Security

INTA takes appropriate security measures to protect against unauthorized access to or unauthorized alteration, disclosure or destruction of data. These include internal reviews of our data collection, storage and processing practices and security measures, including appropriate encryption and physical security measures to guard against unauthorized access to systems where we store personal data.

13. Changes to Privacy Policy

Please note that this Privacy Policy may change from time to time, and it was last updated on the date at the top of this page. Your continued use of our Site after updated Terms of Use have been posted constitutes your consent to the updated Terms of Use. If we determine appropriate, we may notify you of updated Terms of Use by other means. INTA will not reduce your rights under this Privacy Policy without your explicit consent. We will post any Privacy Policy changes on this page and, if the changes are significant, we will provide a more prominent notice.

14. Cookies

See Cookies Policy.