Guidance

Privacy notice for personal data processed when administering funding support to businesses (IP)

Updated 14 November 2024

This privacy notice will help you to understand what personal data the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) collects about you, how it is used, where this is shared and what rights you have regarding your personal data.

It is important that you read this notice, together with any other privacy notice that is provided to you on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing your personal data, so that you are aware of how and why we are using it.

This notice applies to individual persons who are external to the IPO. This notice does not form part of any contract. This notice can be updated at any time, and we will inform you if this occurs.

Personal data is any information that can be used to identify a living individual, either on its own, or in combination with other pieces of data. Examples of personal data includes your name and your address.

Data processing includes the collection, use, publication, sharing and storage of data.

The Intellectual Property Office is responsible for implementing the national framework governing intellectual property rights (IPRs) and for promoting the UK’s interests in the development of the international Intellectual Property Rights system. Its functions aim and objectives are set out in the Intellectual Property Office Framework Document. One of which is to provide a better understanding of the role Intellectual Property plays in the UK economy, providing evidence-based guidance to business on managing and exploiting their intellectual property

The data controller is the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) per article 4 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

The Data Protection Officer for the IPO can be contacted using the contact details below:

DSIT Data Protection Officer

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology
1 Victoria Street

London

SW1H 0ET

Email: dataprotection@energysecurity.gov.uk

1. The purpose of processing your data

The IPO processes your personal data for the purposes of providing funding support to businesses to help them manage and commercialise their Intellectual Property and to perform tasks related to exercising its authority as the UK’s Intellectual Property Office.

2. The lawful basis for processing your data

The IPO processes your personal data for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of the official authority given to it, per Article 6(1)(e) of the UKGDPR.

3. Your rights

You have the following rights regarding your personal data:

• you have the right to request access to your data

• you have the right to correct your data if it is incorrect

• you have the right to object to your data being processed

If you wish to exercise your rights, please contact the Data Protection Officer above.

4. If you do not provide your personal data

If you do not provide all the requested personal data, then the IPO may not be able to provide the support you are applying for.

5. Data transfers

Your personal data is shared under lawful agreements with partner organisations to help deliver our funding support schemes. It may be shared within IPO to perform tasks relating to its responsibility as the official UK government body for Intellectual Property and with other government departments where it is legal to do so.

We will share your data if we are required to do so by law - for example, by court order, or to prevent fraud or other crime.

Your personal data may be used for research or analysis purposes. Your personal data may also be used by our auditors to assess our compliance with standards and regulations. Your personal data is shared using secure transfer methods and will not be transferred to any additional third parties and will not be processed outside of the UK. The IPO has assured the data safeguarding measures of all organisations with which your personal data is shared.

6. How long we keep your personal data

Your personal data will be retained in accordance with the IPO’s data retention and disposal policies.

7. The use of automated decision making

Your personal data is not used in any automated decision making (a decision made solely by automated means without any human involvement) or profiling (automated processing of personal data to evaluate certain conditions about an individual).

8. Change of purpose

We will process your personal data for the purpose for which we collected it. If we process your personal data for another purpose that we reasonably consider to be compatible with the original purpose, we will notify you and explain the legal basis which allows us to do so. Please note that we might process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules where this is required or permitted by law.

9. Changes to this privacy notice

We reserve the right to update this privacy notice at any time, and we will provide you with a new privacy notice when we make any substantial changes. We will also notify you in other ways from time to time about the processing of your personal data.

10. How to lodge a complaint

If you have a complaint regarding the processing of your personal data, then please contact the Data Protection Officer listed above. You also have the right to lodge a complaint with the supervising authority, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), at any time. Should you wish to exercise that right the full details are available at the ICO website.