Privacy Policy - JK Marcam

This Privacy Policy explains how JK Marcam LLP ("JK Marcam", "we", "us" or "our") collects, uses, discloses and protects personal data, and the choices you have. It is written to meet the requirements of the Personal Data Protection Act 2012 of Singapore (the "PDPA") and applies to our website, jkmarcam.com, and to the trade mark and related services we provide.

Last updated: [date of publication]. Effective from the same date.

1. Who we are

JK Marcam LLP is a Singapore limited liability partnership (UEN T17LL1121L) with its registered office at 10 Anson Road #10-11, International Plaza, Singapore 079903. We are a trade mark agency: we advise on, search, file, prosecute, maintain and watch trade marks in Singapore and, through foreign trade mark offices and overseas correspondents, in other jurisdictions. For the purposes of the PDPA we are the organisation responsible for the personal data described in this Policy.

2. What "personal data" means

"Personal data" means data, whether true or not, about an individual who can be identified from that data, or from that data together with other information to which we have or are likely to have access. This Policy does not apply to business contact information (an individual's name, position, business telephone number, business address, business email address and similar information not provided solely for personal purposes) to the extent that the PDPA excludes it, but we treat such information with the same care.

3. Personal data we collect

We collect personal data in the following ways.

3.1 When you contact us. When you enquire by our website form, email, telephone, WhatsApp, live chat or in person, we collect the details you give us: your name, email address, telephone number, company or organisation, the trade mark you are interested in, the goods or services it is used for, and the content of your message.

3.2 When you engage us. When you appoint JK Marcam as your agent we collect the information needed to act for you and to file with the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore ("IPOS") and other trade mark offices: the applicant's name and address, country of incorporation or residence, Unique Entity Number or equivalent, the names and contact details of your authorised representatives, the particulars of your marks and their goods and services, correspondence about your matters, and billing and payment details (we do not store full payment card numbers).

3.3 When you use our website. Our website records technical information through the services described in section 7: the pages you visit, your browser and device type, approximate location derived from your IP address, and cookie identifiers. Our website does not require you to create an account.

3.4 From other sources. We may receive personal data about you from a law firm, agent or intermediary that instructs us on your behalf, from public registers such as the IPOS register and the ACRA register, from the WIPO Madrid System, and from foreign trade mark offices and our overseas correspondents in the course of your matters.

We collect only the personal data that is reasonable and necessary for the purposes set out below.

4. Purposes for which we collect, use and disclose personal data

We collect, use and disclose personal data for the following purposes:

to respond to your enquiries and to provide the complimentary consultation and basic clearance search you request;
to assess conflicts of interest and to decide whether we can act;
to provide trade mark services: searches and assessments, drafting and harmonising specifications, preparing and filing applications, prosecuting applications before IPOS and other offices, responding to office actions, oppositions and other proceedings, recordals, renewals, portfolio management and trade mark watch;
to communicate with you about your matters, deadlines, reports and renewals, including watch reports and renewal reminders;
to issue quotations, invoices and receipts, to process payments and to maintain our accounts;
to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations, including those of IPOS, the Intellectual Property (Trade Marks) Rules, the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority, tax authorities and anti-money-laundering requirements where applicable;
to manage our relationship with you, maintain our records and protect our legal rights;
to measure and improve our website and the effectiveness of our advertising, as described in section 7; and
with your consent, to send you updates on trade mark practice and our services, from which you may unsubscribe at any time.

We will not use your personal data for any other purpose without first notifying you and, where required by the PDPA, obtaining your consent.

5. Consent

By providing personal data to us, or by instructing us, you consent to our collecting, using and disclosing that personal data for the purposes above. Where you provide personal data about another individual, for example a director, an authorised signatory or a colleague, you confirm that you have obtained that individual's consent to our collecting, using and disclosing their personal data for those purposes.

The PDPA also permits us to collect, use and disclose personal data without consent in certain circumstances, for example where it is necessary to respond to an emergency, where it is publicly available, or where it is necessary for the performance of a contract with you or for a legitimate business purpose that outweighs any adverse effect on you. We rely on these provisions only where the PDPA permits.

You may withdraw your consent at any time by giving us reasonable notice in writing (see section 12). We will tell you the likely consequences of withdrawal; in particular, we may be unable to continue to act for you, and withdrawal does not affect any use or disclosure that took place before it.

6. Disclosure of personal data

We do not sell personal data. We disclose personal data only as necessary for the purposes in section 4, to the following classes of recipient:

Trade mark offices and registries: IPOS, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) under the Madrid System, and the trade mark offices of the countries in which you ask us to file. Applications, registrations and the particulars of applicants, including names and addresses, are published on public registers by those offices.
Overseas correspondents: the trade mark agents and law firms we instruct in other countries to file and prosecute your marks, who receive only the personal data needed for your matter.
Service providers: the providers that process data on our behalf, including the operators of our website hosting, our enquiry form service, our live chat service, our email and document systems, our work platform and our accounting software. These providers are bound by contract or by their published terms to protect personal data and to use it only to provide the service to us.
Professional advisers and authorities: our auditors, accountants, bankers, insurers and legal advisers, and any court, regulator, law enforcement agency or government body where disclosure is required by law or by a lawful request.
A successor: a purchaser or successor of our business, if the business or its assets are transferred, who will be bound by this Policy in respect of your personal data.

7. Website, cookies and online tools

Our website uses the following services. Each sets cookies or similar identifiers in your browser and processes technical data in accordance with its own privacy policy.

Enquiry form (Formspree): when you submit the form, your entries are transmitted to the form service and forwarded to our email.
Live chat (tawk.to): records the conversation, your name if you give it, and technical details such as your browser and approximate location, so that our consultants can reply.
Meta Pixel: measures visits and enquiries that result from our advertising on Meta platforms. We do not pass your name, email address or the content of your enquiry to Meta.
Google Fonts: serves the typefaces on this website from Google's servers, which receive your IP address when the page loads.

You can refuse or delete cookies through your browser settings. Doing so does not affect your ability to read this website, though some features, such as live chat, may not work. Our website does not respond to "Do Not Track" signals.

8. Accuracy

We take reasonable steps to ensure that the personal data we collect is accurate and complete, particularly where it will be used to file an application or will be disclosed to a trade mark office. Please tell us promptly of any change to your name, address, contact details or authorised representatives, because applications, registrations and official correspondence are issued to the details on record.

9. Protection

We protect personal data in our possession or under our control by reasonable security arrangements, including access controls on our systems, password protection and encryption of data in transit, restricted access to client files on a need-to-know basis, and contractual obligations on our service providers. No method of transmission over the internet or of electronic storage is completely secure, and we cannot guarantee absolute security.

10. Retention

We keep personal data only for as long as it is needed for the purposes for which it was collected or for legal or business purposes. In particular:

enquiry details that do not lead to an engagement are kept for up to [number] months and then deleted or anonymised;
client files, including filing records, correspondence and invoices, are kept for the life of the registration and for at least seven years after our engagement ends, because trade mark registrations are renewable indefinitely and records may be needed in later proceedings;
accounting records are kept for the period required by Singapore law.

When personal data is no longer needed we delete it or anonymise it so that it no longer identifies you.

11. Transfers outside Singapore

Because trade mark protection is territorial, acting for you in other countries requires us to transfer personal data to trade mark offices and to our overseas correspondents in those countries, and some of our service providers store data on servers outside Singapore. Where we transfer personal data outside Singapore we take steps to ensure that the recipient provides a standard of protection comparable to that under the PDPA, through contractual terms, the recipient's own legal obligations, or your consent to the transfer for the purpose of your instructions.

12. Your rights: access, correction and withdrawal of consent

You may ask us:

for access to the personal data we hold about you and for information about how we have used or disclosed it in the past year;
to correct an error or omission in your personal data; and
to withdraw consent to our collecting, using or disclosing your personal data.

Requests should be made in writing to our Data Protection Officer (section 14). We will respond as soon as reasonably possible and in any case within 30 days; if we need longer we will tell you within 30 days when we expect to respond. We may charge a reasonable fee for an access request, which we will tell you in advance, and we may decline a request in the circumstances the PDPA permits, in which case we will tell you the reason.

13. Changes to this Policy

We may update this Policy from time to time to reflect changes in our practices or in the law. The date at the top shows when it was last updated. Material changes will be announced on this website. Your continued use of our website or services after a change takes effect constitutes acceptance of the updated Policy.

14. Data Protection Officer and contact

Questions, requests and complaints about personal data should be addressed to:

Data Protection Officer
JK Marcam LLP
10 Anson Road #10-11, International Plaza, Singapore 079903
Email: enquiry@jkmarcam.com
Telephone: +65 6920 2404

If you are not satisfied with our response you may contact the Personal Data Protection Commission of Singapore at www.pdpc.gov.sg.

15. Governing law

This Policy is governed by the laws of Singapore.