Privacy Policy

Perry + Currier Inc., PCK IP Lawyers PC (formerly known as “PCK IP Lawyers LLP”), PCK IP Lawyers (USA) P.C. – Privacy Policy

Perry + Currier Inc. (“P + C”), PCK IP Lawyers PC (“PCK Lawyers”, formerly known as “PCK IP Lawyers LLP”) and PCK IP Lawyers (USA) P.C. (“PCK USA”) are separate entities and independent practices whose services are presented and marketed under the brand “PCK”.

P + C, PCK Lawyers and PCK USA each recognize the importance of privacy and the sensitivity of personal information collected or received by them. We have a professional obligation to keep confidential all information we receive within a professional-client relationship. PCK is committed to protecting any personal information held by them. This Privacy Policy outlines how they manage your personal information and safeguard your privacy. Each of our professionals and staff members in the respective firms is familiar with this policy and received training in the principles contained in it.

Your Privacy Rights

From January 1, 2004, all businesses engaged in commercial activities are required to comply with the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (“PIPEDA”), and the Canadian Standards Association Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information, which it incorporates. These obligations extend to members of PCK. The Act gives you rights concerning the privacy of your personal information.

Why We Need Personal Information

Any personal information collected by PCK is used only for the purpose of completing professional tasks on your behalf or for communicating with you in the future with respect to their services and developments in the field of intellectual property and law generally. The firms only collect personal information to the extent necessary for those purposes.

What Personal Information We Collect

Personal information is information that identifies you, or by which your identity could be determined.

How P + C, PCK Lawyers and PCK USA Collect Your Personal Information

PCK collects information only by lawful and fair means and not in an unreasonably intrusive way. Most commonly, we collect your personal information directly from you at the start of an engagement and during the delivery of services under the engagement.

Sometimes we may obtain information about you from other sources: for example,

  • an employer or business associate;
  • other professional advisors such as a lawyer, patent or trademark agent, accountant, or business advisor;
  • from a government agency or registry;
  • your employer or a business associate;
  • a member of your family;

Consent

In most cases, we obtain your personal information directly from you with your consent. By your retaining of PCK to act on your behalf, we assume your consent to obtain the limited personal information required in order to complete the work contemplated by the engagement.

Use of Your Information

PCK uses your personal information to provide professional advice and services to you, to administer docketing and billing databases and possibly to communicate with you in the future concerning our services and developments in the law. If, at any time, you tell us that you no longer wish to receive information about services, or about new developments in our field, we will not send any further material.

PCK does not disclose your personal information to any third party for any purpose unconnected to our professional work on your behalf.

Disclosure of Your Personal Information

The only circumstances in which we would disclose your personal information would be:

  • when we are required or authorized by law to do so, for example if a court issues a subpoena;
  • when you have expressly or implicitly consented to the disclosure;
  • when the services we are providing to you require us to give your information to third parties, your consent will be implied, unless you tell us otherwise;
  • where it is necessary to establish or collect fees;
  • if we engage a third party to provide administrative or other support services to us (such as computer back-up services or archival file storage) and the third party is bound by this or a substantially similar privacy policy and obligations of confidentiality;
  • if we engage expert witnesses on your behalf;
  • if we retain other firms, professionals or service providers on your behalf.

Updating Your Information

Since we use your personal information to provide services to you, it is important that the information be accurate and up-to-date. If during the course of any engagement with PCK, any of your information changes, please inform the applicable entity so that any necessary changes can be made.

Security of Personal Information

We take all reasonable precautions to ensure that your personal information is kept safe from loss, unauthorized access, modification or disclosure, such as:

  • premises security;
  • restricted file access to personal information;
  • protecting against unauthorized computer access;
  • internal password and security policies

Access to Your Personal Information

You may ask for access to any personal information PCK may hold about you.
Summary information is available on request. More detailed requests which require archive or other retrieval costs may be subject to our normal professional and disbursement fees.

Correcting Errors

If, at any time, you learn that any information held is not accurate, complete or up-to-date, upon being advised by you, all reasonable steps to correct it will be taken.

Access to Personal Information

In almost all circumstances, you are entitled to full access to all personal information held by us.

The following circumstances would, however, possibly permit us to deny access:

  • denial of access is required or authorized by law (for example, when a record containing personal information about you is subject to a claim of legal professional privilege by one of our clients);
  • information relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings against you;
  • when granting you access could have an unreasonable impact on other people’s privacy;
  • when to do so would prejudice negotiations with you;
  • to protect the rights and property of PCK and the well-being, safety or security of their personnel;
  • where the request is frivolous or vexatious.

If your request for access to personal information is denied, you will receive an explanation of such denial in writing. PCK does not regularly obtain Social Insurance Numbers. If we do, those numbers are not used to identify or organize any other information.

Anonymity

By the nature of the services provided by PCK, the identity of all clients must be recorded and verified as required by regulatory requirements. The Proceeds of Crime (Money Laundering) and Terrorist Financing Act also requires us to confirm the identity of all new clients. In addition, that Act may also require us to disclose information to FINTRAC in relation to certain large cash transactions.

Credit Bureaus

To help us make credit decisions about clients, prevent fraud, check the identity of new clients and prevent money-laundering, we may on occasion, request information about you from the files of credit reporting agencies, in accordance with their privacy policies and regulations.

Communicating with Us

You should be aware that e-mail is not a one hundred per cent secure medium.  You should be aware of this when contacting us to send personal or confidential information. In our use of e-mail, both in communicating with you and with others on your behalf, we will not generally use encryption or other security measures unless specifically requested to do so by you. If you communicate with us using e-mail, you acknowledge and accept the risks of sending information over the Internet.  Special data or information security arrangements, such as encryption, can be made on request and if required.

Changes to this Privacy Policy

P + C, PCK Lawyers and PCK USA may change or update our Privacy Policy from time to time.

Requests for Access

Each of our staff are trained with respect to this Privacy Policy. The professionals of PCK are responsible for privacy issues with respect to the individual clients they manage.

If you have any questions, or wish to access your personal information, please contact or write to the professional dealing with your file.

If, at any time or for any reason, you are not satisfied with the response of PCK,  the Privacy Commissioner of Canada can be reached at:

112 Kent Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 1H1
1(800)282-1376

Employment Inquiries

If you apply to PCK for a job, we need to consider your personal information, as part of our review process. We normally retain information from candidates after a decision has been made, unless we are asked not to retain the information. The information submitted by successful candidates will be retained in our employee records, which records are kept secured and segregated from other administrative records.