Privacy Policy

Ⅰ. Introduction

Patsnap (UK) Ltd., Patsnap, Inc., and their respective parents, subsidiaries, and affiliates (collectively, “Patsnap”, “we”, “us”, or “our”) operate www.patsnap.com, run marketing events, publish whitepapers and other educational materials, and provide products and services, and we respect your privacy in relation to personal data collected through these activities. Patsnap (UK) Ltd is a United Kingdom company with our registered office at Building 3 Chiswick Park, 566 Chiswick High Street, London, W4 5YA, registration number 09492371. The data controller of your personal data is Patsnap (UK) Ltd., which is registered with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office under registration number ZA283379.

Ⅱ. Updates to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to ensure compliance with all applicable legislation and to reflect any changes in our collection, processing, and/or retention of personal data. The date of the latest update appears at the end of this notice.

Ⅲ. About Patsnap

As the global leader in innovation intelligence, Patsnap uses AI-powered technology and machine learning to comb through billions of datasets and help innovators connect the dots. We provide customers with access to a database of more than 180 million patents, together with licensing and litigation data, economic data, patent valuations, image and chemical formula search, trademark recognition, and more. For more information about Patsnap, please see the About Us section of our website.

Ⅳ. What personal data does Patsnap collect?

We collect the following categories of personal data, depending on your interactions with us:

• Log-in credentials such as first name, last name, and email address for account creation and communications, including service updates and marketing communications.
• Service use data, including account information, configuration settings, content you input, platform output content, historical records, and activity logs, to provide requested services.
• Network and device information to ensure normal access, maintain operations, improve performance, and protect account security.
• Interaction data you provide via forms for webinars, whitepapers, educational materials, or technical assistance, which may also be used for service updates and marketing communications.
• Cookie-derived data necessary for the proper functioning of our website, as further described in our Cookie Policy.
• Data provided where your employer or a third party arranges your access to our products and services.
• Recruitment data when you apply for a job through our websites.
• Data provided by partners and service providers who arrange access to our products and services.
• Professional data from public domain sources about academic authors, researchers, patent holders, clinical trials investigators, and other contributors whose information may appear as content in our services.
• Personal data obtained from public or paid-for sources, including marketing lists to identify prospects.

Ⅴ. What types of personal data do we collect?

Depending on how you interact with Patsnap and the different products or services you use, the personal data we collect may consist of the following:

• Name and contact details – first name, last name, e-mail address, postal address, and telephone number.
• User inputted content – content you provide to us when you use our services (e.g., if you contact our customer service teams or any information you choose to include about yourself in our services, e.g. your search term, documents you upload, the comments you provide, the content you provide in the interactions with our services).
• Application data – LinkedIn profile, resume/CV, current location, current company.
• Configuration information – information about your setting, such as the sharing permission, your preference default setting for searching, generating graphics, etc.
• Device and network related information – information about your computer or other device, such as IP address, location or provider.
• Log related information – information about your interactions with our services, such as your view history, your search history, your export history, etc.
• Purchase History – purchases you have made (or that which have been made for you), when your subscriptions expire and/or renew.
• Demographic information – your country and preferred language.
• Other information – we collect other information that you provide to us, such as when you participate in our events or surveys.

Ⅵ. Legal basis summary

We rely on a range of lawful bases—including performance of a contract, legitimate interests, consent, and compliance with legal or regulatory obligations—when processing personal data, and we explain these in context below together with whether any information is mandatory and the implications of not providing it.

Ⅶ. How do we use personal data and what are our lawful bases?

We process personal data only where the applicable laws permit, including GDPR, CCPA, UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. Our purposes and corresponding lawful bases are:

• Customer and product administration: to create accounts; provide and support services; enforce terms; report product usage to customers and partners; contact you about renewals; and related administration. Lawful bases: performance of a contract; legitimate interests to manage and improve services; legal obligation where reporting is required. These administration purposes reflect how we provide access, support, enforce terms, and manage subscriptions and reporting.
• Marketing: to send marketing messages about Patsnap products and services. Lawful bases: consent where required by e-privacy rules; legitimate interests B2B marketing where permitted, with the ability to unsubscribe. We send marketing communications and do not disclose contact information to third parties for their marketing purposes.
• Product content: to organise and include information from publicly available sources and personal data you choose to make available in our services. Lawful bases: legitimate interests to provide research content and collaboration features. We include information collected from publicly available sources and data you choose to provide for profiles and forums.
• Security: to protect IT systems and prevent misuse. Lawful bases: legitimate interests to ensure security. We protect the security of our IT systems, architecture and networks and prevent misuse of products and services.
• Legal rights and compliance: to exercise or defend legal claims and comply with applicable laws and regulations. Lawful bases: legitimate interests; legal obligation. We process personal data to exercise our rights, assist third parties in exercising theirs, defend claims, and comply with applicable laws and regulations.
• Recruitment: to process applications and communicate regarding interviews and offers. Lawful bases: steps prior to entering into a contract; legitimate interests to recruit. We collect personal data to process job applications and communicate in relation to interviews or offers.

Where we rely on consent, you may withdraw it at any time using the methods described in Section XI and Section XXI. If you have any questions about the legal bases, you can contact us at [email protected].

Ⅷ. To whom do we share your personal data for legal and business purposes?

We may share your personal data as follows:

• Employees, contractors and affiliated organisations bound by duties of confidentiality to protect personal data that need access to the data in order to process it on Patsnap’s behalf.
• Patsnap entities, third-party service providers and partners who provide data processing services to Patsnap (e.g., to support the delivery of, provide functionality on, or help to enhance the security of our website, events, and/or products and services), or who otherwise process personal data for purposes that are described in this Privacy Policy or communicated to you when we collect your personal data. If you are based within the European Economic Area (EEA) or UK, Patsnap may transfer your data outside the EEA/UK as applicable to other Patsnap entities. All Patsnap entities are subject to our company-wide data protection processes, which have been devised to comply with all applicable standards.
• Government agencies, law enforcement, courts and other public authorities to whom we may be legally bound to disclose your personal data.
• Users of Patsnap’s our products and services if your personal data is collected from public sources for inclusion in our product databases and any personal data you choose to provide to us for display in our services (e.g., in profiles and when using online forums).
• Any other person with your consent to the disclosure.

We require third-party service providers processing personal data for us to enter into written terms that reflect the compliant obligations of GDPR, UK GDPR and CCPA, including confidentiality, security, processing only on our documented instructions, assistance with data subject rights and incident response, use of sub-processors with appropriate safeguards, and deletion or return of personal data at the end of the services.

Ⅸ. International data transfers

We operate globally and may process personal data in countries other than your country of residence; our website servers and key systems are located in Europe and the United States, and our subsidiaries, affiliates, and third-party providers operate worldwide; we have taken appropriate safeguards to ensure personal data remains protected in accordance with this Privacy Policy and our contractual commitments.

We may transfer your personal data to Patsnap entities and third party service providers as outlined at paragraph VIII above. This may involve transferring personal data outside the UK or EEA to countries which have laws that do not provide the same level of data protection as the UK law and/or GDPR. Whenever we transfer your personal data out of the UK or EEA to countries that have not been deemed by the UK or EU (as applicable), to provide an adequate level of protection for personal data, we ensure that the following safeguards are in place:

• For transfers out of the EEA: the European Commission’s standard contractual clauses for international data transfers; and
• For transfers out of the UK: the ICO’s International Data Transfer Agreement.

Ⅹ. Anonymous statistics

We may anonymise your personal data for the purposes of internal analyses (e.g., product research to help us improve our products and services).

XI. Marketing communications

We may send you marketing communications, including but not limited, to newsletters, and emails (“Marketing Communications”), that will include service updates, advertising and offers related to our products and services which we believe may be of interest to you. At any time, you may change your Marketing Communication preferences, either by:

• electing to unsubscribe from the Marketing Communications sent to you by following the ‘unsubscribe’ link which can be found at the bottom of emails; or
• contacting our team directly by emailing [email protected] or the “Contact Us” option, found either in the email we sent or on the www.patsnap.com website.

Aside from Marketing Communication, please note that from time to time, you may receive some important service information that we believe is critical to the use of our products and services. In these exceptional circumstances, such information will be sent to you regardless of your Marketing Communication preferences.

If you send us a request (e.g., via a support email or via our feedback mechanisms), we reserve the right to publish it in order to help us clarify or respond to your request or to help us support other users.

XII. Security

We use appropriate technical and organizational measures, including anti-virus software and encryption, to protect the personal data that we collect and process about you. The measures we use are designed to provide a level of security appropriate to the risk of collecting and processing your personal data. Our security practices are also audited on a recurring basis, and we maintain ISO 27001 certification.

Please note that while we have taken reasonable steps to protect your personal data, no website, Internet transmission, computer system, or wireless connection is absolutely secure. In the event of a personal data security incident, we will, in accordance with the requirements of applicable laws and regulations, promptly inform you of the following: the basic situation and possible impact of the security incident, disposal measures we have taken or will take, suggestions for your self-protection and risk mitigation, remedies for you, etc. We will timely inform you of the relevant situation of the event by email, letter, telephone, or push notification. When it is difficult to inform the personal data subjects individually, we will issue an announcement in a reasonable and effective manner. Meanwhile, we will also actively report the handling of the personal data security incident in accordance with the requirements of the regulatory authorities.

XIII. Keeping personal data up to date and data retention

It is your responsibility to ensure that the information you submit to Patsnap is complete, accurate and up to date, and it is your responsibility to notify us if that information changes.

We store personal data for the duration of your relationship with us and retain it as necessary to fulfil the purposes collected, including to satisfy legal, accounting, or reporting obligations, or to resolve disputes; if we have no ongoing legitimate business need, we will delete or anonymise the data, or if infeasible, securely store and isolate it until deletion is possible.

Retention criteria and typical periods: -Account data: retained for the contract term and 3 months after termination for fulfilling post-termination obligations, resolving disputes arising from our contract with you and limitation and record-keeping. -Service usage logs: retained for 6 months for security and audit, then anonymised or deleted. -Marketing data: retained until you opt out, then placed on a suppression list for indefinitely/as required to honour opt-out. -Recruitment data: retained for 12 months after process completion for the purposes of defending legal claims and considering candidates for future suitable roles or longer with consent where permitted. -Financial records: retained for 6 years to meet statutory obligations. Where a specific period is not stated in law, we apply the above criteria based on necessity, legal requirements, and limitation periods.

XIV. Cookies

We use:

• Strictly necessary cookies: essential for site operation. Lawful basis: legitimate interests.
• Non-essential cookies (e.g., analytics, advertising, personalisation): set only with your consent. You can withdraw consent at any time via our cookie banner or preferences centre.

Those visiting our website who do not wish to have cookies placed on their computers can set their browsers to refuse cookies, noting that certain site features may not function properly without cookies; further details are provided in our Cookie Policy. For details, see our Cookie Policy.

XV. Third-party service providers and their services

Our websites, products, applications, and services may contain links to third-party websites, products, and services. You can choose whether to visit or accept websites, products, and services offered by third parties. We have no control over third-party privacy and data protection policies as such third parties are not bound by this Privacy Policy. Before you submit Personal data to third parties, please refer to their privacy policies.

XVI. Children

Patsnap products and services are not directed to children under the age of thirteen (13) or UK users under the age of 16. We do not knowingly collect, use, sell, share or disclose the personal data of children. If a child below the age of 16 is found to be using Patsnap products and services, and personal data has been transmitted to us, Patsnap shall take the necessary steps to remove the personal data collected and terminate the use of Patsnap products and services. If you have reason to believe that a child under 16 has provided personal data to Patsnap through our products or services, please email us at [email protected] or [email protected].

XVII. Your data protection rights

You have the below rights under UK data protection law, based on where you live, you may be subject to one or more of the following data protection rights (some of which are limited rights subject to certain exceptions), as well as the right to file/lodge a complaint with the relevant supervisory authority:

• Right to know/be informed as to the personal data or categories of personal data we have about you.
• Right to access a copy of the personal data we have about you.
• Right to correct/rectify inaccurate personal data that we have about you.
• Right to delete/erase personal data about you.
• Right to opt out of/object to certain processing, such as sales or sharing of personal data to third parties, targeted advertising, automated decision making or certain types of profiling.
• Right to object to or restrict processing, if you meet certain limited applicable circumstances.
• Right to receive your personal data in a structured, machine-readable format for your own purposes, or to request us to share it with a third party.
• Right to withdraw consent at any time, free of charge. Any such withdrawal only applies prospectively and will not impact prior processing conducted in accordance with your prior freely given consent.
• Right not to be subject to automated decision-making.
• Right to appeal a refusal to take action on a request within a reasonable period of time after you receive the initial decision.
• Right of non-discrimination, as a result of your exercise of data protection rights.

You may exercise rights via the methods in Section XX, and as a general rule we respond free of charge, but we may charge a reasonable fee for manifestly unfounded or excessive requests or where necessary due to unavoidable costs, and we will ensure the security of your personal data when you exercise your rights.

Process and timeframes:

• Submitting requests: email [email protected] or [email protected], or use in-product tools where available. You may use the contact details in Section XX.
• Evidence: we may request information reasonably necessary to verify your identity and authority e.g., contact details, account identifiers, proof of authority for agent requests.
• Response time: we will respond without undue delay and within one month of receipt; we may extend by two further months for complex or numerous requests and we will notify you of any extension.
• Refusals: we may refuse requests that are manifestly unfounded or excessive, or where an exemption applies; in the UK you may complain to the ICO if you disagree (see Section XIX).

XVIII. Automated decision-making and profiling

We do not make decisions based solely on automated processing, including profiling, that produce legal effects concerning you or similarly significantly affect you. The logic involves analysing usage patterns and preferences to suggest relevant content or features; the significance is enhanced relevance; the consequences are limited to customising your user experience and communications, and you may opt out of direct marketing personalisation at any time and manage non-essential cookies and similar technologies via the preferences centre.

XIX. Complaints to the ICO

If you live in the UK, you may lodge a complaint with the UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) if you have concerns about our processing of your personal data. ICO website: https://ico.org.uk. Telephone: 0303 123 1113. Address: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF. We would appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO, so please contact us in the first instance.

XX. Contact us

To exercise your rights or for questions about this Privacy Policy, contact us at [email protected] or our Data Protection Officer at [email protected]. Our registered office is Building 3 Chiswick Park, 566 Chiswick High Street, London, W4 5YA.

Details of our Article 27 representative of GDPR in the EU is as follows, if data subjects want to review, verify, correct or request erasure of their personal information, object to the processing of their personal data, or request that we transfer a copy of their personal information to another party, please contact our EU representative.

Name: Fieldfisher Tech Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH
Email address: [email protected]
Postal address: Amerigo-Vespucci-Platz 1, 20457 Hamburg, Germany

XXI. Specific provisions for US residents

Where Patsnap is subject to the requirements of the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 (CCPA), as amended by the California Privacy Rights Acts of 2020 (CPRA), and California Consumer Privacy Act Regulations (CCPR), the following applies:

1. Collection of Personal Data within the Last Twelve (12) Months

We have collected the following personal data from you using our services and products within the last twelve (12) months.

2. Personal Data that has been Sold or Shared within the Last 12 Months

Under applicable privacy laws, the collection and disclosure of certain data (such as your activity on our sites and apps) to third parties for interest-based advertising and social media purposes may be considered a “sale”, “share”, or “targeted advertising”. Accordingly, we have engaged in such activities involving the following personal information: Internet or other electronic network activity information. These practices support our advertising, marketing, and audience measurement efforts. We do not “sell”, “share”, or process for “targeted advertising” the personal information of known minors.

3. Personal Data that has been Disclosed for a Business Purpose within the Last 12 Months

4. How to Exercise Your California Privacy Rights

To exercise your Right to Access, Right to Know or your Right to Deletion, please submit a request by:

• Emailing us at [email protected] or our Data Protection Officer at [email protected];
• Calling us at +1 888 397 9199.

Before processing your request, we will need to verify your identity and confirm you are a resident of the State of California. In certain circumstances, we may decline a request to exercise the rights described above, particularly where we are unable to verify your identity or locate your information in our systems. If we are unable to comply with all or a portion of your request, we will explain the reasons for declining to comply with the request.

This Privacy Policy was last updated on 24 March 2026.