Privacy policy

This policy describes the personal data actually processed by the Patent Cost Calculator service, under the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) and, where applicable, the GDPR. The controller is GIG Inventions Sàrl.

Simulation parameters (filing date, jurisdictions, routes, options, editable amounts, target currency) are sent to our server, which performs the whole calculation. On their own they are not linked to an identity.

To unlock the results, the form asks only for: an email address (required), the title of the quote (optional), the role you state (optional) and an optional box accepting to be contacted. No full name, no phone number, no company name and no postal address are requested or recorded at this step.

The saved simulation is also given a technical identifier and a timestamp (creation and last computation), together with the initial filing country and the countries you selected — these are needed to store and reopen your simulation.

We also record, together with that submission: the date and time, the two consent choices you made (contact, report delivery) and the version of the consent wording shown to you.

Ordinary technical logs of the hosting infrastructure (IP address, request headers, timestamps) are generated automatically for security and operation. Patfee also uses separate secret-keyed hashes of the IP address, device identifier, temporary visit identifier and email address to apply short anti-abuse quotas and detect abnormal peaks; these values cannot be used to recover the source data.

Local storage on your device: interface language, saved assumptions, form pre-fill, and your cookie choice. No visitor identifier is used for the directory.

Ticking the optional box on the unlock form records only that consent, with its date, the version of the wording and the language used, together with the email address and the simulation context you already provided. Leaving it unticked creates no lead, no prospecting file and no follow-up queue, and never restricts access to the results.

Requesting the free 30-minute session records only what the form asks for: your email address, the slot you choose, your time zone, the interface language, the topic and, if you write one, a free-text note. No full name, no phone number and no company name are required, and no simulation data or identifier is attached to the request.

The request is not a confirmed appointment. It is first offered to one priority patent attorney, then, without an answer within four hours, to the other participating attorneys. The appointment exists only once an attorney accepts it: at that moment, and only then, an appointment is created in our Microsoft Bookings calendar and a Teams link is generated and sent to you. If nobody accepts, no appointment is created.

To avoid double bookings, we check the chosen slot against the attorney's Microsoft calendar availability. Only the slot and the attorney identifier are involved in that check; no content of your request is sent for it.

The phone number is never mandatory anywhere on this site; it is only ever entered voluntarily in the booking page or in a directory application.

Reporting a problem sends only the subject, description and steps you type, plus your email address if you choose to add one.

Generating the simulation: computing the estimate server-side and returning the result and the PDF report you request.

Keeping the simulation: storing your parameters and last computation so the simulation can be reopened and supported.

Security and abuse prevention: rate limiting, log analysis, protection of the service.

Administration of the service: operation, statistics on volumes, handling of your requests.

Separate purpose — being contacted again: only if you explicitly ticked that box (consent). Refusing it does not restrict access to the calculator.

Separate purpose — sending the PDF report by email: only if you explicitly ticked that box (consent). Each report email contains an unsubscribe link.

Simulations and the email address attached to them: deleted after 12 months of inactivity (automated purge).

Ordinary technical logs: deleted after 30 days.

Transactional email archive (recipient, subject and message content): accessible only to authenticated administrators and deleted automatically after 12 months. Authentication codes and password-reset secrets are masked before archiving.

Anti-abuse counters, pseudonymised decisions and one-time challenge records: deleted automatically within 48 hours. Aggregate alerts contain no raw address or simulation assumptions. The strictly necessary device-protection cookie expires after 12 months; the temporary visit cookie expires when the browser session ends.

Proof of a consent (wording version, date, choice): kept for as long as necessary to demonstrate that consent, and no longer.

Directory submissions: kept while the entry is published or under review, then deleted on request.

Appointment requests (email address, slot, time zone, language, topic, note, outcome): deleted 12 months after the last activity on the request, whatever the outcome. Cancelling an accepted appointment also cancels it in Microsoft Bookings.

Local storage and cookies: up to 12 months, or until you clear them or withdraw your consent.

Lovable — publishing and hosting platform of the application, and the transactional email service integrated in that platform used to deliver report emails.

Supabase — managed database and file storage (registrations, consents, email logs, directory submissions, PDF reports).

Cloudflare — edge delivery, TLS and abuse protection; it sets the technical `__cf_bm` cookie, processes connection data and may perform a Turnstile anti-bot check when necessary.

Frankfurter — public exchange-rate API queried server-side only; no personal data is sent to it.

Microsoft (Microsoft Bookings, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams) — processor for the optional free 30-minute session, called server-side by Patfee only: staff availability, then, once an attorney accepts, the creation of the appointment (your email address, the slot, the time zone, the topic and your note), the Outlook entry and the Teams link. No simulation data or identifier is sent to Microsoft.

No data is sold, and no advertising or audience-measurement network is used.

The controller is established in Switzerland. The processors above may process data in the European Union and in the United States. These transfers rely on the contractual guarantees of those providers (standard contractual clauses and equivalent commitments in their data processing agreements).

You may request access, rectification, deletion, restriction or portability of your data, and object to processing based on legitimate interest.

You can withdraw a consent at any time, with no effect on processing already carried out: use the unsubscribe link in any report email, click “Manage cookies” in the footer for storage on your device, or write to legal@patfee.org for the contact consent.

Write to legal@patfee.org to exercise any right; we answer within 30 days. You may also lodge a complaint with the competent supervisory authority (in Switzerland, the FDPIC).

Before your choice, only strictly necessary security storage is used: Patfee's device-protection cookie and Cloudflare's technical protection cookie. Optional storage (preferences) is written only after explicit consent and can be withdrawn at any time via “Manage cookies”.

Listings are published only at the practitioner's own request. An application records: name, professional title, firm, email address and phone, country and city, working languages, technical fields, diplomas and certifications, registration number and/or public register link, website, optional portrait photo, free-text notes, the three confirmations given (accuracy, publication, privacy) and the interface language used.

Legal basis: consent for publication, and our legitimate interest in verifying that a listed practitioner actually exists and is registered. Verification is limited to the registration details declared and public official registers; no document is requested or stored.

Retention: applications not confirmed by email are deleted after 24 hours; refused applications or applications awaiting corrections are deleted after 30 days; dormant applications are deleted after 6 months; published listings remain online until the practitioner or the controller removes them, and removed listings are deleted after 30 days.

Photos are stored in a private area and become publicly accessible only after approval. Anti-spam technical records (hashed IP and email keys) are kept for 24 hours.

Practitioners may ask for correction or removal at any time by writing to legal@patfee.org. The directory applies no paid placement. Clicks on published contact links only increment anonymous aggregate counters per listing; no individual visitor profile is created.

The hourly rate provided is confidential commercial data. It is used only for the relative ordering of profiles and is never disclosed to visitors. Purpose: comparable fee-based sorting only. Retention: as long as the listing exists, then deletion together with the listing. Access: restricted to the authenticated directory administrators of GIG Inventions Sàrl. Practitioners may update or delete this rate at any time; every change is journalled in the back office.

Duplicate detection: to prevent duplicate listings, contact details, registration and qualification numbers, registry entries and photo file digests are compared internally. Comparison values are stored only as secret-keyed fingerprints (HMAC-SHA-256), are never published and are never used for profiling, scoring or advertising. Photos are compared by exact file digest only, with no facial recognition or biometric processing. Any duplicate signal is reviewed by a human before any decision. Legal basis: legitimate interest in the accuracy of the directory.

Click counting: the service counts, in aggregate form, clicks on the contact details of published profiles so that practitioners can be informed of the interest their listing generates. No cookie and no local storage are used. The technical data used to avoid double counting is pseudonymised (secret-keyed fingerprint of IP address, browser agent, profile, link type and 24-hour period) and deleted within 48 hours. Only aggregate totals per profile and per link type are kept; no individual visitor history is retained and this is neither an advertising tool nor individual visitor tracking. Page displays are counted the same way, in aggregate form only, and are used solely for the monthly visibility report sent to published practitioners, who can stop it at any time from the link in the e-mail. Short access links: the addresses patfee.org/l (printed or shared short link) and patfee.org/q (QR code) redirect to the home page and only increment a daily total per channel — number of accesses and number of simulations started. No cookie, no local storage, no IP address, no browser identifier and no individual history are recorded.

When a firm applies for a paid listing we process: firm name, country, published contact details, billing email address, the tier and billing period chosen, listing status and invoices. Legal basis: performance of the contract, and legal accounting and tax obligations.

Payments are processed by Stripe (Stripe Payments Europe and affiliates). No card number or payment instrument data is transmitted to GIG Inventions Sàrl or stored on our servers: we retain only customer and subscription identifiers, status, periods, amounts and invoices. Stripe acts as an independent controller for that processing and applies its own privacy policy.

Retention: for the duration of the listing and the subscription; accounting records are kept for the statutory period (in principle 10 years). International transfers: Stripe frames its transfers with the EU standard contractual clauses or other appropriate safeguards.

Views of a firm listing are counted in aggregate form only and feed the monthly visibility report sent to the firm. Even for a paid listing, no individual visitor tracking and no advertising processing take place.