Privacy Policy

1. Scope

This Privacy Policy applies to the PCT Phase Entry Fee Calculator for Germany and Europe provided by Patent Attorneys Weisse, Moltmann & Willems PartG mbB.

The calculator is intended to help users estimate official fees and prepare information for German national phase entry or European regional phase entry. It does not replace legal advice or a binding fee quote.

2. Controller and data protection contact

The controller responsible for processing personal data in connection with this calculator is:

Patent Attorneys
Weisse, Moltmann & Willems PartG mbB
Am Lomberg 13
42555 Velbert
Germany

Phone: +49 (0) 2052 – 95010
Email: info[at]wmw-patent[dot]de

For privacy-related questions about this calculator, please use the contact details above.

3. How the calculator works

The calculator is designed to process the data entered by the user on the page in order to prepare a fee estimate. Unless you actively send information to WMW, contact WMW, or use a lookup function that connects to an external service, the entries are used for the calculation shown in your browser.

There are two ways in which case data may be transmitted from this calculator:

• Path 1 — external link to the WMW website: the “Contact WMW” link in the support panel and footer leads to the English contact form on www.wmw-patent.de. From that point, the privacy policy of wmw-patent.de applies. No case data is automatically transmitted by clicking the link.
• Path 2 — on-page binding quote request: the “Request binding quote” dialog inside the calculator transmits the entered contact details together with the calculation summary directly from this website to a server-side endpoint hosted on the same domain (send-request.php). The endpoint forwards the request as an email to info[at]wmw-patent[dot]de and sends an automatic acknowledgment email back to the address provided by the user. See section 6 below for further detail.

If you send case data to WMW through either path, WMW processes the transmitted information to respond to your request, review the data, prepare next steps and, where applicable, handle a potential or existing instruction.

4. Categories of personal data

Depending on how you use the calculator and whether you contact WMW, the following categories of data may be processed:

• contact data, such as name, email address, telephone number, company and address, if provided by you;
• case and patent-related data, such as application or publication references, filing dates, priority dates, claim numbers, page numbers, jurisdiction selections, fee-relevant choices and generated calculation summaries;
• communication data, such as your message and related correspondence;
• technical access data, such as IP address, date and time of access, browser type, operating system, referrer URL, log data and similar information required to deliver and secure the website.

Please avoid entering confidential or sensitive personal data unless it is necessary for your request.

5. Purposes and legal bases

WMW processes personal data for the following purposes and legal bases:

• providing and securing the calculator and the website infrastructure on the basis of legitimate interests in operating a functional and secure online tool;
• responding to enquiries and taking steps prior to a possible instruction or contract;
• reviewing transmitted case data and preparing or performing patent-law services, where applicable;
• fulfilling legal, tax, accounting, professional and regulatory obligations;
• using consent where consent is required, in particular for non-essential access to or storage of information on a user device or for optional services.

Where processing is based on legitimate interests, those interests include providing a reliable calculator, preventing misuse, maintaining IT security, responding to enquiries, and documenting business communications where necessary.

6. Recipients and external services

Personal data may be processed by WMW personnel and, where necessary, by service providers that support hosting, IT security, email, communication, maintenance or website operations. Such providers are involved only to the extent necessary for the relevant purpose.

6.1 Hosting and email transport (processor)

This website is hosted by STRATO AG, Otto-Ostrowski-Straße 7, 10249 Berlin, Germany. STRATO acts as a processor within the meaning of Art. 28 GDPR for hosting, server logging and outbound email transport. A data processing agreement is in place. Server log files (including IP address, request line, status code, user agent, referrer and timestamp) may be created automatically by the hosting environment for operational and security purposes; the legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in providing a stable and secure service).

6.2 On-page binding quote request

If you submit the “Request binding quote” dialog inside the calculator, the following data is transmitted from your browser to the server-side endpoint send-request.php on this website and from there as an email to WMW (and as an acknowledgment email to the address you provided):

• name, email address, optionally phone number and company / address;
• any free-text message you provide;
• the calculation summary you saw on screen (jurisdiction selection, deadlines, fee breakdown, ISA classification, claim count and similar fields needed to prepare a quote);
• technical metadata used solely for spam prevention (timestamp of when the form was opened, page URL, browser language, time zone, user agent) and a hidden honeypot field that real users leave empty.

Legal basis: Art. 6(1)(b) GDPR (steps prior to entering into a contract at your request) and, for the spam-prevention metadata, Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in protecting the form against automated abuse). The acknowledgment email is sent solely to confirm receipt of the request and is not used for marketing.

6.3 External interfaces triggered by user action

• EPO OPS: If a user actively requests a patent publication lookup, the entered publication reference is forwarded by this website’s server-side proxy (ops-proxy.php) to the European Patent Office Open Patent Services interface. The request is performed by the server, so your IP address and browser are not directly disclosed to the EPO.
• Frankfurter API: If currency conversion to USD is enabled, an indicative EUR/USD exchange rate is requested from api.frankfurter.dev / api.frankfurter.app. This request is performed by your browser on your action; technical request data (including your IP address) is transmitted to the Frankfurter API operator.
• External link to wmw-patent.de: Clicking the “Contact WMW” link or the WMW logo opens the WMW firm website. From that point, the privacy policy of wmw-patent.de applies.

6.4 Fonts

Web fonts are served directly from this website (self-hosted). No font requests are made to Google Fonts servers or to other third-party font providers.

6.5 Web analytics — Google Analytics 4 (consent based)

Subject to your prior consent given through the on-page consent banner, this website uses Google Analytics 4 (provider: Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland; parent company: Google LLC, USA), property G-7NXYV7K2GS, to collect pseudonymous statistics about website usage.

If consent is granted, Google Analytics:

• sets cookies named _ga and _ga_7NXYV7K2GS on your device;
• collects pseudonymous data such as pages viewed, time on page, country (derived from a shortened IP), browser, operating system, device category, screen size, language and referrer;
• processes your IP address in shortened form (Google Analytics 4 does not store full IP addresses);
• does not use Google Signals, advertising features or remarketing on this property (these are switched off in the configuration).

Until consent is given, the Google Analytics script runs in “Consent Mode v2 / denied” state: no cookies are set and no personalised pings are sent. As long as no consent is given, no information is associated with your device.

Legal basis: your consent under Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR and § 25 Abs. 1 TDDDG. You can withdraw consent at any time, with effect for the future, by clicking the “Cookie Settings” link in the footer and switching analytics off (or by deleting the wmw_privacy_preferences_v2 entry in your browser’s local storage).

Recipients: Google Ireland Limited as processor under Art. 28 GDPR (a data processing addendum is in place); aggregated reporting data may be processed by Google LLC in the United States.

Transfer to a third country: Google may process data in the United States. Google LLC is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework; the transfer is therefore based on an adequacy decision (Art. 45 GDPR). In addition, Google has put EU Standard Contractual Clauses in place. More information is available in Google’s privacy policy at policies.google.com/privacy and Google’s Analytics-specific data terms at business.safety.google/analytics/.

Storage period: cookies set by Google Analytics expire after up to 24 months (_ga) and after up to 13 months (_ga_7NXYV7K2GS); aggregated reporting data is retained inside the Google Analytics account in line with the property’s data-retention setting.

Data may also be disclosed to authorities, courts, professional advisers or other recipients if required by law, professional duties, the establishment or defence of legal claims, or the performance of a mandate.

7. International transfers

Some external providers or technical infrastructure providers may process data outside the European Economic Area. Where this occurs, WMW relies on applicable transfer mechanisms, such as adequacy decisions, standard contractual clauses or statutory derogations where permitted.

For Google Analytics (see 6.5), processing in the United States is currently based on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework adequacy decision and, where applicable, Standard Contractual Clauses. For the EPO OPS interface (see 6.3), the processing takes place at the European Patent Office in Europe.

8. Storage and retention

Calculator entries that are not submitted to WMW are not intended to be stored by WMW through the calculator page. Server log files generated by the hosting environment for operational and security purposes are retained only for as long as necessary for those purposes and are then deleted or anonymised.

Enquiries, transmitted case data and related communications are retained only for as long as necessary for the relevant purpose and in accordance with applicable legal, tax, accounting and professional retention obligations.

This website does not set non-essential cookies and does not store information on your device for purposes such as analytics, advertising or remarketing. The previously used consent banner has therefore been removed.

9. Voluntary provision of data

Use of the calculator is voluntary. Certain data is necessary to generate a meaningful estimate or to respond to your request. If you do not provide the relevant information, the calculator may not produce the desired result and WMW may be unable to respond to or assess your request.

10. Automated decisions and profiling

The calculator generates an automated fee estimate based on the values entered by the user. This estimate has no legal or similarly significant effect and is not a binding quote. WMW does not use this calculator for profiling or automated decision-making within the meaning of Article 22 GDPR.

11. Your rights

Subject to the applicable legal requirements, you may have the right to request access to your personal data, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and objection to processing. Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw consent at any time with effect for the future.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a competent supervisory authority. For WMW in North Rhine-Westphalia, the competent supervisory authority is the Landesbeauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit Nordrhein-Westfalen, Kavalleriestraße 2-4, 40213 Düsseldorf, Germany, email: poststelle[at]ldi.nrw.de.

12. Updates

This Privacy Policy may be updated if the calculator, the website environment, external services or legal requirements change.