PRIVACY POLICY

Last Revised: December 2023

Intellectual Property Owners Association and Intellectual Property Owners Education Foundation (“IPO,” “IPOEF”, “we,” “us,” and “our”) are committed to protecting your privacy. We have prepared this privacy policy (“Privacy Policy”) to describe to you how we collect, use, share and protect (collectively our “Practices”) the Personal Data (as defined below) we collect from you through your interactions with us, including interactions with our branded websites that link to this Privacy Policy (the “Sites”) or through the other services we may provide such as profiles and forums, (“Services”). Please read this Privacy Policy carefully, and consult our Terms of Use for more information about the general terms and conditions regarding your use of the Sites.

This Privacy Policy contains information on our Practices regarding your Personal Data in accordance with relevant laws and regulations, including, where applicable, the European and UK data protection laws (e.g., EU GDPR, UK GDPR and other related laws) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (with any implementing regulations and as may be amended from time to time, “CCPA”). In addition to reviewing this entire Privacy Policy, where applicable, please review the following sections:

European and UK Users. If you are located in the European Economic Area (“EEA”) or the United Kingston (“UK”) and subject to the EU GDPR or the UK, please review this Privacy Notice and Section 12 for a description of your rights and other information related to the GDPR.
California Users. To the extent applicable, if you are a California Resident (as defined below), please review Section 13 for additional disclosures, our Notice at Collection, and a description of your rights under the CCPA.

The rights discussed in certain sections of this Privacy Policy may be subject to exemptions or other limitations under applicable law.

SECTION 1 – TYPES OF DATA WE COLLECT

In general, we or our service providers collect information, including Personal Data, when you communicate with us and when you use the Sites. This information can be collected directly from you or from other parties as well as automatically through technology embedded in the Sites.

For purposes of this Privacy Policy, “Personal Data” means data that allows someone to directly or indirectly identify or contact you, including, for example, your name, address, telephone number, or e-mail address, and, with regard to California residents only, this includes personal information as defined under the CCPA. Please review Section 13 for additional California-specific information.

(a) Information You Provide to Us

In order to access certain services provided via the Sites or to request certain information from IPO via the Sites, you may be required to provide certain Personal Data.

Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect the following categories of Personal Data from or about you:

identifiers and similar information such as, name, address, date of birth, email address, driver’s license number, tax identification number, passport number, online identifiers or other similar identifiers;
additional information protected under federal or state laws, such as credit card, debit card, or social security numbers;
personal details, including characteristics of protected classifications under certain federal or state laws, including gender, national origin, or marital status;
commercial information, including records of products or services purchased, obtained, or considered, or other purchasing histories or tendencies;
audio, electronic, visual, or similar information;
professional or employment-related information, including occupation, compensation, employer, and title; and
internet or other electronic network activity information, including interactions with our websites or use of certain online tools, and IP addresses

Please note that some of the information collected may be considered special category data, sensitive Personal Data, sensitive data, or sensitive personal information under applicable law.

We may collect this information when you provide it to us such as through registrations or contact us forms. We may also collect Personal Data from information you provide to be published or displayed (“posted”) on public areas of the Sites, our Services, or transmitted to other users of the Sites or third parties (“User Contributions”). Your User Contributions are posted and transmitted to others at your own risk.

You may also be required to provide a username and password to access certain features. If you choose to not provide us with information, you might not be able to gain access to certain information and Services on the Sites, which rely on such information (for example, you will not be able to register for e-mail updates if you do not provide us with an e-mail address, and if you choose not to provide a username and password, we will not be able to provide you with Services available through an online account).

(b) Information Collected Automatically

As you interact with our Sites and Services, we may use certain technologies to collect information automatically from you. This information may include Personal Data as well as information about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns, including:

Information Collected by Our Sites and Servers. To make our Sites and Services more useful to you, our servers (which may be hosted by a service provider) collect information from you, including your browser type, operating system, Internet Protocol (“IP”) address, domain name, and/or a date/time stamp for your visit. Our Sites may also collect information about the pages you view, the duration of your visit, and any search terms you enter on the Sites. We use this information to analyze trends, administer the Sites, track users’ movements around the Sites, and better tailor our Services to our users’ needs.
Location Information. If you have enabled location services on your computer or device, we collect your location information to make a map available to the recipients of your messages showing your location. If you do not want this information collected by us, you can disable location services on your computer or device.

We may collect this information for our use of various online tools such as cookies. For more information, please review Section 4 and our cookie banner, available .

SECTION 2 – HOW WE USE YOUR INFORMATION

General Use

In general and depending on how you interact with us, Personal Data you submit to us is used either to respond to requests that you make or to aid us in serving you better. Depending on how you interact with us, we may use your Personal Data in the following ways:

to facilitate the creation of and secure your account on our network;
to identify you as a user in our system;
to provide improved administration of our Sites and Services;
to provide the Services you request, to carry out our obligations arising from any contracts we enter into with you, and to perform any related administrative activities necessary for us to provide you those Services or to carry out those obligations;
to improve the quality of experience when you interact with our Sites and Services;
to send you a welcome e-mail to verify ownership of the e-mail address provided when your account was created;
to send you administrative e-mail notifications, such as security or support and maintenance advisories;
to respond to your inquiries related to employment opportunities or other requests;
in any other way we may describe when you provide the Personal Data;
to send newsletters, surveys, offers, and other promotional materials related to our Services and for our other marketing purposes;
to notify you about changes to our Services, in part due to our legitimate interest in keeping you informed about our Services;
to share your Personal Data with service providers that carry out certain activities on our behalf that involve the processing of Personal Data (to achieve our legitimate interest in improving the Services); for example, we share cookie and other information with entities such as Google and Facebook in order to make our Services and advertising more relevant to you;
to comply with legal obligations; and
protect our rights, your rights, and the rights of others, as this may be necessary to meet our own high standards of business practice, as well as establish, exercise or defend legal claims.
Marketing Activities

We may use your Personal Data to contact you about our own and third parties’ goods and services that may be of interest to you. Where required by law to request your consent to contact you regarding any IPO or IPO Education Foundation news and events. If you do not want us to use your information in this way, please send us an email at webmaster@ipo.org.

User Testimonials and Feedback

We occasionally solicit and receive survey results and comments from users who have had experiences with our Services. We occasionally publish such content. When we publish this content, we may identify our users by their first and last name and may also indicate their home city. By providing testimonials, survey responses, and comments, you consent to our publishing of this content on our websites and in our marketing materials and communications. If you make any comments on a blog or forum associated with our Sites, you should be aware that any Personal Data you include can be read, collected, or used by other users of these forums, and could be used to send you unsolicited messages. We are not responsible for the Personal Data you choose to submit in these blogs and forums.

Creation of Anonymous Data

We may create anonymous data records from Personal Data by excluding information (such as your name) that makes the data personally identifiable to you. We use this anonymous data to analyze request and usage patterns so that we may enhance the content of our Services and improve Site navigation. We reserve the right to use anonymous data for any purpose and to disclose anonymous data to third parties without restriction.

SECTION 3 – CONSENT

How do you get my consent?

By submitting Personal Data through our Sites or Services, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy and you expressly consent to the collection, use and disclosure of your Personal Data in accordance with this Privacy Policy. We may engage service providers, such as those relating to soliciting and displaying customer feedback, to obtain your consent on our behalf where we have not obtained your consent directly ourselves.

How do I withdraw my consent?

If you do not wish for us to use your Personal Data in any of the manners or for any of the purposes described in this Privacy Policy, you may withdraw your consent for us to contact you, for the continued collection, use or disclosure of your information, at any time, by contacting us at webmaster@ipo.org or mailing us at:

Intellectual Property Owners Association

1501 M St. NW, Suite 1150

Washington, DC 20005

United States

SECTION 4 – OUR USE OF COOKIES AND SIMILAR TECHNOLOGIES

Cookies and Similar Tools Used on the Sites

Like many websites and online services, we may use cookies, web beacons and other similar technologies (collectively “Cookies”) for a variety of purposes such as to better understand, customize and improve the user experience of our Sites, Services and offerings, and market to you. They may be served by the entity that operates the website you are visiting (“first-party cookies”) or by other companies (“third-party cookies”). Some of these cookies may be necessary for our websites to function (“Strictly Necessary Cookies”) while others may be used for: (i) site functionality like language preference or facilitating videos (“Functional Cookies”); (ii) analytics to gather statistics about the use of the Sites in order to improve the performance and design of the Sites and our Services (“Analytics Cookies”).

We may use the following types of Cookies:

Cookies. Like many online services, we generally use Cookies to automatically collect information. “Cookies” are small pieces of information that a website sends to your computer or device while you are viewing the site. We may use both session Cookies (which expire once you close your web browser) and persistent Cookies (which stay on your computer until you delete them) to provide you with a more personal and interactive experience on our Sites. This type of information is collected to make the Sites more useful to you and to tailor the experience with us to meet your special interests and needs. You can control Cookies in various ways, including changing your Cookie settings in your browser or by visiting http://www.allaboutcookies.org/ where you will find comprehensive information on cookie management and blocking which pertains to a wide variety of browsers. Please note that if you turn cookies off, you may not have access to many features that may improve your browsing, like the features mentioned above, and some of our services may not function properly.
Log Files. Tools that track actions occurring on the Sites, and collect data including your IP address, browser type, location, Internet service provider, referring/exit pages, and date/time stamps.
Pixel Tags. In addition to Cookies, we use “Pixel Tags” (also referred to as clear GIFs, Web beacons, or Web bugs). Pixel Tags are tiny graphic images with a unique identifier, similar in function to Cookies, that are used to track online movements of website users. In contrast to Cookies, which are stored on a user’s computer or device, Pixel Tags are embedded invisibly in web pages. Pixel Tags also allow us to send e-mail messages in a format that users can read, and they tell us whether e-mails have been opened to ensure that we are sending only messages that are of interest to our users. We may use this information to reduce or eliminate messages sent to a user. We may tie the information gathered by Pixel Tags to our users’ Personal Data.
Flash LSOs. When we post videos, third parties may use local shared objects, known as “Flash Cookies,” to store your preferences for volume control or to personalize certain video features. Flash Cookies are different from browser Cookies because of the amount and type of data and how the data is stored. Cookie management tools provided by your browser will not remove Flash Cookies. To learn how to manage privacy and storage settings for Flash Cookies, click here: http://www.macromedia.com/support/
documentation/en/flashplayer/help/settings_manager07.html.
Analytics Services. In addition to the tracking technologies we place, other companies may set their own Cookies or similar tools when you visit our Sites. This includes third-party analytics services, including but not limited to Google Analytics (“Analytics Services”), that we engage to help analyze how visitors use the Sites, as well as third parties that deliver content or offers. We may receive reports based on these parties’ use of these tools on an individual or aggregate basis. We use the information we get from Analytics Services to improve our Sites and Services. For a full list of Analytics Services, please contact us at webmaster@ipo.org.
How to Control Cookies

You can control cookies by using the tools described below:

Cookie Banner. You can withdraw your consent to our use of non-essential cookies at any time by clicking here.
Your Browser. You can control non-necessary cookies through web browsers by changing your cookie settings. These settings will typically be found in the “options” or “preferences” menu of your browser.
Third Party Tools. You can visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org/, where you will find comprehensive information on cookie management and blocking that pertains to a wide variety of browsers. You can prevent the use of Google Analytics relating to your use of our websites by downloading and installing the browser plugin available here.

Please note that disabling certain cookies may affect the Sites’ performance and may make certain services and features unavailable.

SECTION 5 – SHARING OF YOUR INFORMATION

We may disclose your Personal Data as described below and as described elsewhere in this Privacy Policy. Depending on how you interact with us, we may disclose your Personal Data to the following entities, including in the following circumstances:

Service Providers. We may share your Personal Data with service providers to: provide you with the Services that we offer you through our Sites; to conduct quality assurance testing; to facilitate creation of accounts; to provide technical support; and/or to provide us with other services. Certain service providers, such as payment gateways and other payment transaction processors, have their own privacy policies in respect to the information we are required to provide to them for your purchase-related transactions. For these providers, we recommend that you read their privacy policies so you can understand the manner in which your Personal Data will be handled by these providers. In particular, remember that certain providers may be located in or have facilities that are located in a different jurisdiction than either you or us.
Affiliates. We may share some or all of your Personal Data with our joint ventures, or other companies under a common control (“Affiliates”) including the Intellectual Property Owners Education Foundation, in which case we will require our Affiliates to honor this Privacy Policy.
Corporate Restructuring. We may share some or all of your Personal Data in connection with or during negotiation of any merger, financing, acquisition or dissolution transaction or proceeding involving the sale, transfer, divestiture, or disclosure of all or a portion of our business or assets. If another company acquires our company, business, or assets, that company may possess the Personal Data collected by us and will assume the rights and obligations regarding your Personal Data as described in this Privacy Policy.
As Legally Required. Regardless of any choices you make regarding your Personal Data (as described below), we may disclose Personal Data if it believes in good faith that such disclosure is necessary (i) in connection with any legal investigation; (ii) to comply with relevant laws or to respond to subpoenas or warrants served on us; (iii) to protect or defend our rights or property or users of the Sites or Services; and/or (iv) to investigate or assist in preventing any violation or potential violation of the law, this Privacy Policy, or our Terms of Use.
Other Disclosures. We may also disclose your Personal Data, to fulfill the purpose for which you provide it; for any other purpose disclosed by us when you provide it; or with your consent.

SECTION 6 – OTHER WEBSITES

Our Sites may contain links to other websites. Please be aware that the terms of this Privacy Policy do not apply to other websites or content, or to any collection of your Personal Data after you click on links to such outside websites. We encourage you to read the privacy policies of every website you visit. The links to other websites or locations are for your convenience and do not signify our endorsement of such third parties or their products, content or websites.

SECTION 7 – YOUR CHOICES REGARDING INFORMATION

You have several choices regarding the use of your information with respect to our Services:

Email Communications. We may periodically send you free newsletters and e-mails that directly promote the use of our Sites or Services. When you receive newsletters or promotional communications from us, you may indicate a preference to stop receiving further communications from us and you will have the opportunity to “opt-out” by following the unsubscribe instructions provided in the e-mail you receive or by contacting us directly (please see contact information below). Despite your indicated e-mail preferences, we may send you service related communications, including notices of any updates to our Terms of Use or Privacy Policy.
Cookies. You can manage or withdraw your consent for Cookies at any time but this may affect some functionality. More information about our use of Cookies and how you can control them can be found in Section 4.
De-Linking SNS. If you decide at any time that you no longer wish to have your SNS account (e.g., Facebook) linked to your account, then you may de-link the SNS account in the “preferences” section in your account settings. You may also manage the sharing of certain Personal Data with us when you connect with us through an SNS, such as through Facebook Connect. Please refer to the privacy settings of the SNS to determine how you may adjust our permissions and manage the interactivity between the Services and your social media account or mobile device.
Changing or Deleting Your Personal Data. All users may review, update, correct or delete the Personal Data in their user accounts by contacting us or editing their profiles. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to honor your request. We may retain an archived copy of your records as required by law or for legitimate business purposes.

Please review Section 12 if the processing of your Personal Data is subject to the GDPR and Section 13 if you are a California resident.

SECTION 8 – SECURITY

To protect your Personal Data, we take reasonable precautions and follow industry standard practices to protect the information that we collect or receive. Unfortunately, no security measures are perfect or impenetrable. As such, we are unable to guarantee your data’s absolute security.

SECTION 9 – CHILDREN’S INFORMATION

By using the Sites, you represent that you are at least the age of majority in your state or province of residence.

We do not knowingly solicit or collect Personal Data on the Sites from visitors who are under the age of 13. If a child under 13 submits Personal Data to us and we learn that the Personal Data is the information of a child under 13, we will take reasonable measures to delete such information from our records and to not use such information for any purpose (except where necessary to protect the safety of the child or others as required by law). If you believe that we might have any Personal Data from a child under 13, please contact us at webmaster@ipo.org.

SECTION 10 – HOW LONG WE KEEP YOUR INFORMATION

We keep your Personal Data only for as long as is necessary for the purposes for which we are using it. The period for which we keep your Personal Data is determined by a number of criteria, including the purposes for which we are using the information, the amount and sensitivity of the information, the potential risk from any unauthorized use or disclosure of the information, and our legal and regulatory obligations.

SECTION 11 – USERS OUTSIDE OF THE UNITED STATES

If you are a non-U.S. user of the Sites or Services, by visiting the Sites or using the Services and providing us with data, you acknowledge and agree that your Personal Data may be processed for the purposes identified in the Privacy Policy. In addition, your Personal Data may be processed in the country in which it was collected and in other countries, including the United States, where laws regarding processing of Personal Data may be less stringent than the laws in your country. By providing your data, you consent to such transfer.

SECTION 12 – ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR EUROPEAN AND UK USERS

The GDPR imposes certain obligations on us, as a data controller, and grants certain rights to individuals located in the EEA or UK. “Personal data” and other terms as used in this section have the same meaning provided in the GDPR.

Legal Basis

If the processing of your personal data is subject to the GDPR, we ensure that we have identified a legal basis for doing so, including:

Contract. Depending on the circumstances, we may need to process your personal data for the performance of a contract to which you are a party.
Legitimate Interest. This processing of personal data is necessary for our legitimate business interest in managing and promoting our business, provided that our interest is not overridden by your interest. In identifying this basis, we have weighed our legitimate interest as a business against your rights and freedoms and have determined that it will not unfairly impact your rights. You have the right to object to our processing of your personal data where it is done on this basis. If you would like further information on how we balanced these interests, you can contact us using the details provided in Section 15.
Legal Requirements. We may need to process your personal data in order to comply with certain legal and regulatory requirements. In certain circumstances, we may also process some personal data for carrying out our or your obligations and exercising specific rights in the field of employment and social security and social protection law authorized by certain countries’ laws.
Consent. We may also process your personal data with your consent, as required, and, where applicable, your explicit consent. You have the right to withdraw this consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdrew your consent.
Storage and Transfers of Your Information

In operating our Sites and providing our Services, we may sometimes transfer and store information outside the UK or EEA, including to the United States. Where we transfer personal data outside the EEA or UK, we will seek to ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring that personal data is only transferred:

To countries that have been deemed to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data by the relevant data protection authorities (an “adequacy decision”);
To persons and undertakings to whom the transfer of such personal data is made pursuant to a contract that is compliant with the model contracts for the transfer of personal data to third countries from time-to-time approved by the relevant data protection authorities;
To persons and undertakings outside of the EEA or UK pursuant to other appropriate safeguards for the transfer of personal data; and
Only on one of the conditions allowed under the GDPR in the absence of (i) an adequacy decision or (ii) appropriate safeguards such as a contract that is compliant with the model contracts for the transfer of personal data to third countries approved by the relevant data protection authorities.

You can contact us through the information provided in Contact Us below for further information on specific mechanisms we utilize for transferring personal data outside the EEA or UK and the countries to which such transfer may be made.

Rights Under the GDPR

If the processing of your personal data is subject to the GDPR, you retain control over all personal data that you provide to us when visiting the websites and using our Services. You have the following rights, which you can exercise free of charge:

Right to Information. You have the right to obtain information about your personal data stored by us at any time.
Right to Revoke Consent Given. You have the right to revoke your consent in the processing of personal data at any time with effect for the future. In the event of revocation, we will immediately delete the data concerned unless further processing can be based on another legal basis for processing. The revocation of consent does not affect the lawfulness of the processing carried out on the basis of consent until revocation.
Right to Object. If we process your personal data within the framework of a balancing of interests on the basis of our overriding legitimate interest, you have the right at any time to object to this processing with effect for the future on grounds arising from your particular situation. If you exercise your right to object, we will stop processing the concerned data. However, we reserve the right to carry out further processing if we can demonstrate compelling legitimate grounds for the processing which override your interests, fundamental rights and freedoms, or if the processing serves the purpose of asserting, exercising or defending legal claims. If your personal data are processed by us for the purpose of direct marketing, you have the right to object at any time to the processing of your personal data for the purpose of such marketing.
Right to Data Portability. You have the right to request a transfer of your personal data from us to another institution.
Right to Rectification, Erasure or Restriction of Processing. You have the right to have your personal data rectified or deleted or to have the processing of them restricted.
Right to Complain. You have the right to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority or to our company if you have a reason for such complaint. To exercise any rights against our company, please contact the contact persons listed above at the beginning of this privacy policy.
How to Exercise Your GDPR Rights

If you wish to exercise your rights under the GDPR, you may submit a request by emailing us at webmaster@ipo.org with “GDPR Request” in the subject line or using the other contact information provided in Section 15.

SECTION 13 – ADDITIONAL INFORMATION FOR CALIFORNIA RESIDENTS

To the extent applicable, the CCPA imposes certain obligations on us and grants certain rights to California residents (“California Resident,” “you” or “your”) regarding “personal information.” If you are a California Resident, please review the following information about your potential rights with regard to your personal information under the CCPA. The rights described herein are subject to exemptions and other limitations under applicable law.

Terms used herein have the meaning ascribed to them in the CCPA. We are a “business.”

Information We Collect

Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect the categories of personal information from or about you detailed above in Section 1.

Our Use and Collection of Information

We may collect and use personal information from you for the purposes described above in Section 2. Certain of these categories of personal information may be considered “sensitive personal information” under the CCPA, such as your account log-in, in combination with any required security credentials allowing access to such account.

Sale or Sharing of Personal Information

We do not sell or share your personal information (as those terms are defined under the CCPA).

How Long We Keep Information

We retain your personal information as described above in Section 10.

For more information about our privacy practices, please review our entire Privacy Notice.

Our Collection, Use, and Disclosure of Personal Information and Sensitive Personal Information

What Information We Have Collected, the Sources from Which We Collected It, and Our Purpose for Collecting the Information

In the preceding 12 months, depending on how you interact with us, we may have collected the categories of personal information from the categories of sources listed above in Section 1. We may collect all or a few of these categories of personal information for the business or commercial purposes identified in Section 2.

Our Disclosure Sale and Sharing of Personal Information

We do not sell or share your personal information (as those terms are defined under the CCPA). We do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of California Residents under 16 years old. In the preceding 12 months, we may have disclosed for a business purpose the following categories of personal information (described in more detail in Section 1) to the following categories of third parties, as describe in the below chart:

Category of Third Parties	Categories of Personal Information	Business or Commercial Purpose for Disclosure
Our affiliates	Identifiers; Additional information subject to Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e); Characteristics of protected classifications under certain federal or state laws; Commercial information; Education information; Internet or Electronic Network Activity Information; Audio (e.g., voicemail), electronic, visual or similar information; Professional or Employment Related Information; Inferences	Performing services; Auditing related to interactions with you and concurrent transactions; Short-term transient use; Detecting security incidents, protecting against malicious, deceptive, fraudulent, or illegal activity, and prosecuting those responsible for that activity; Debugging and repainting errors impairing functionality (such as website); Internal research for technological development and demonstration; Activities to verify, maintain, or improve the quality of our services; Business development and marketing initiatives.
Third parties as needed to operate sub-sites, provide webinar services, and database maintenance	Identifiers; Education Information and Employment Related Information; Internet or Electronic Network Activity Information	Performing services; Business development and marketing initiatives; short-term transient use

In addition, in the preceding 12 months, we may have disclosed all of the categories of personal information identified in Section 1 to the following categories of third parties: (i) judicial courts, regulators, or other government agents purporting to have jurisdiction over us, our subsidiaries or our affiliates, or opposing counsel and parties to litigation; and (ii) other third parties as may otherwise be permitted by law and for the business or commercial purposes identified above in Section 2. Additionally, we may disclose your personal information to third parties upon your request, at your direction, or with your consent.

We may also disclose your personal information or otherwise make it available to our service providers such as our IT and/or Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”) providers, other entities that have agreed to limitations on the use of your personal information, or entities that fit within other exemptions or exceptions in, or as otherwise permitted by, the CCPA.

Use and Disclosure of Sensitive Personal Information

As noted in Section 2, under the CCPA, certain personal information we collect and process may be considered “sensitive personal information.” The CCPA requires that we provide you with a right to limit our use or disclosure of such sensitive personal information in certain circumstances. Currently, we are not using or disclosing your sensitive personal information for purposes that would require that we provide you with a right to limit.

California Residents’ Rights under the CCPA

If your personal information is subject to the CCPA, you may have certain rights concerning that information, subject to applicable exemptions and limitations, including the right to: (i) be informed, at or before the point of collection, of the categories of personal information to be collected, and the purposes for which the categories of personal information shall be used; (ii) not be discriminated against because you exercise any of your rights under the CCPA; (iii) request that we delete any personal information about you that we collected or maintained, subject to certain exceptions (“Request to Delete”); (iv) opt-out of the “sale” (as that term is defined in the CCPA) of your personal information if a business sells your personal information (we do not); (v) opt-out of the “sharing” (as that term is defined in the CCPA) of your personal information if a business shares your personal information with third parties (we do not); (vi) limit the use and disclosure of sensitive personal information where required by the CCPA (“Right to Limit”) (please note that we are not using your sensitive personal information for purposes that would require that we provide you with a Right to Limit); (vii) correct inaccurate personal information (“Request to Correct”); and (viii) request that we disclose to you the personal information we have collected, used, and disclosed about you during the past 12 months (“Request to Know”).

The CCPA does not restrict our ability to do certain things like comply with other laws or comply with regulatory investigations. We also reserve the right to retain, and not to delete, certain personal information after receipt of a Request to Delete from you where permitted by the CCPA or another law or regulation.

How to Submit a Request Under the CCPA

You may submit a Request to Know, Request to Correct or Request to Delete (“Consumer Rights Request”), as described above, through the following telephone number: 202-507-4500 or via email: webmaster@ipo.org.

When you submit a Consumer Rights Request, we may ask that you provide clarifying or identifying information to verify your request. Such information may include, at a minimum, depending on the sensitivity of the information you are requesting and the type of request you are making, your name and email address. Any information gathered as part of the verification process will be used for verification purposes only.

If you would like to use an authorized agent to submit a request, we may request proof that that they are authorized to act on your behalf, or have a power of attorney. We may also require that you directly verify your own identity with us and directly confirm with us that you provided the authorized agent permission to submit the request.

Additional California Privacy Rights

Do Not Track

Your browser and other mechanisms may permit you to send do-not-track signals or other similar signals to express your preferences regarding online tracking. We do not currently respond to such signals.

Third-parties, such as our analytics providers, may collect data that relates to you on the Websites, across time, and over other websites. We cannot control third-parties’ responses to do-not-track signals or other such mechanisms. Third-parties’ use of data relating to you and responsiveness to do-not-track signals is governed by their respective privacy policies.

Shine the Light Disclosures

If you are a California resident, you have the right to request certain information from us regarding the manner in which we share with third-parties certain categories of information that identifies you for the third-parties’ direct marketing purposes. If you wish to exercise this right, please email us at webmaster@ipo.org.

SECTION 14 – CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

We reserve the right to modify this Privacy Policy at any time, so please review it frequently. Changes and clarifications will take effect immediately upon their posting on the Sites. If we make material changes to this Privacy Policy, we will notify you here that it has been updated, so that you are aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we use and/or disclose it. The date the Privacy Policy was last revised is identified at the beginning of this Privacy Policy. You are responsible for ensuring we have an up-to-date active and deliverable email address for you, and for periodically visiting our Sites and this Privacy Policy to check for any changes.

SECTION 15 – QUESTIONS AND CONTACT INFORMATION

This Privacy Policy is available in alternative formats upon request. If you have any questions or concerns about this Privacy Policy, to request this Privacy Policy in an alternative format, to register a complaint, or simply want more information, contact us at webmaster@ipo.org or by mail at:

Intellectual Property Owners Association

c/o Operations Manager

1501 M St. NW, Suite 1150

Washington, DC 20005

United States