In respect of current and potential employees, contractors and work experience persons, we may collect additional Personal Information including, but not limited to, personal resumes, third-party references, bank details, superannuation details, tax file numbers, certain health information, emergency contact details and other employee or contractor records. We may also conduct criminal checks on individuals who commence employment or have a contracting arrangement with us. The results of such checks are held on our employee or contractor files for the duration of the employment, engagement or service, and after such relationship ceases, as needed or required by law.

3. How do we collect your Personal Information?

a) Overview

We collect Personal Information directly from the individual concerned whenever reasonably practicable.

We sometimes collect Personal Information about you from a variety of other independent sources, including publicly available sources (including social media), recruitment agencies, contractors, service providers and business partners. Where information is not obtained directly from the individual concerned, we obtain Personal Information in accordance with legal requirements.

The circumstances in which we may collect your Personal Information include, without limitation:

• when you have a face-to-face meeting with our personnel;
• when you attend our or third-party presentations, conferences or events;
• when you use our website, including a request to receive a newsletter or other information from us;
• when you provide or offer to provide a product or service to us;
• when you obtain a product or service from us;
• when you communicate with us by e-mail, telephone, electronic messaging, or in writing;
• when you apply for employment or work experience with us or accept an offer of employment;
• when you enter into a contract with us;
• through share registries;
• where you have consented to third parties sharing it with us, including our suppliers and providers of services and other business associates; and
• from publicly available sources, including newspapers and social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

b) Providing third-party Personal Information to us

If, at any time, you provide us with Personal Information or other information about someone other than yourself, you warrant to us that you have that person’s consent, including where applicable any necessary consent under this Privacy Policy, to provide such information for the purpose specified and for us to treat such information in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

c) Remaining anonymous

You have the option of remaining anonymous when dealing with us in relation to a particular matter, or not disclosing Personal Information to us. However, this may affect the services provided, or mean that we will not be able to provide our services or respond to you in light of the nature of our business.

d) Information about users of our websites and cookies

Our internet service providers record certain statistical information about users of our websites and information technology infrastructure. This information is reviewed by us for statistical purposes and is not disclosed to third parties. We do not identify you or your browsing activities except, in the event of an investigation, where a law enforcement agency may exercise a warrant or other such power to inspect the internet service provider’s server logs.

We use cookies on our websites to identify repeat viewers and make it easier for you to navigate our site. If you reject cookies, you may still use our site, but your ability to use some features of our site may be limited.

4. How do we use your Personal Information?

a) General

The primary purposes for which we collect, use and exchange your Personal Information are to establish your identity and to provide you with the products and services you have requested.

We may state a more specific purpose at the point we collect your information. If you do not provide us with the information that we request, we may not be able to provide you with our products or services.

In certain circumstances, we may need to collect personal and sensitive information to comply with our legal obligations, such as anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing laws. If you do not provide us with the information we request, we will not be able to provide you with our products or services.

Our uses of Personal Information include but are not limited to:

• establishing your identity;
• use of legal precedents;
• billing and accounting services;
• internal, external and regulatory audit purposes;
• communicating with you, including by email, mail or telephone;
• managing our relationship with you;
• advising you in relation to intellectual property (“IP”), legal and related matters;
• filing, prosecuting and maintaining applications for statutory protection of IP including copyright, design, patent, trademark and domain name applications and registrations in Canada and overseas and engaging third parties to do so;
• conducting trademark opposition proceedings before the trademark office and regulators in Canada, and other jurisdictions;
• providing other professional services including advice with respect to litigation, dispute resolution services, appeals, commercial and regulatory legal advice, and IP watches and searches;
• providing you with updates, offers or proposals in relation to your matters and products and services that may be of interest to you;
• sending regular news alerts (and other correspondence) concerning developments in the legal and related fields that may be of interest to you;
• sending marketing and promotional material that we believe may interest you;
• for purposes necessary or incidental to the provision of goods and services to you;
• for any other purpose which we have your consent;
• for other reasons as permitted or required by applicable laws and regulations, including but not limited to comply with legal and regulatory requirements (such as, but not limited to: Anti-Money Laundering (AML) requirements);
• inviting you to events and functions;
• personalizing and customizing your experiences;
• managing and enhancing our products and services;
• investigating complaints made by you; and
• in the case of employees and contractors:
  • to pay your wages, fees and employee & contractor entitlements;
  • conduct criminal checks and confirm your immigration status and right to work; and
  • to manage your relationship with us

We may also use your Personal Information for purposes required or authorized by applicable laws or regulations, such as to prevent or investigate alleged crime or fraud. We may also use your Personal Information if it is necessary to prevent or lessen a serious threat to public health or public safety or if the use of the information is necessary for law enforcement or for the conduct of proceedings before any court or tribunal.

b) Marketing and Consent

By supplying us with your Personal Information, you give us permission to disclose your Personal Information to employees of Procido and third parties that carry out functions (including marketing functions) on our behalf or assist us to deliver our services, such as our business associates, contractors, agents or service providers, so that we can assess your likely needs, and contact you from time to time.

We may contact you to inform you about laws and developments in a field of law and other products, services, events and resources we think would be of particular interest to you. The permission you provide to us is not limited in time. You can, however, elect to opt-out of receiving correspondence and other marketing materials from us by:

• contacting us using the contact information provided below in section 9 of this Privacy Policy; or
• by utilizing an ‘unsubscribe’ facility on a communication we send to you.

If you opt-out of receiving further communications from us, we will take steps to ensure you do not receive any such further information from us in future. Recipients of our news alerts and other correspondence may notify us at any time should they wish to discontinue receipt of emails and other communications from us.

5. Who do we share your Personal Information with?

Personal Information is disclosed and used by us to enable us to provide services to you and for the other purposes identified in section 4.

a) Employees of Procido

We may receive and disclose Personal Information from or to employees of Procido in accordance with this Privacy Policy.

All disclosure of information by us within Procido is subject to compliance with all legal requirements, information sharing, and conflicts of interest policies.

b) Disclosure and use of your Personal Information to and by third parties

We may be required to disclose your Personal Information to certain third parties that may include:

• governmental offices;
• courts;
• government and law enforcement agencies and regulators;
• your agents, professional advisors, auditors or insurers;
• our financial, taxation or legal advisors;
• entities that assist us to deliver our services, including our business associates, contractors or service providers, together with agents and associates in foreign countries when required;
• entities that assist or conduct mailouts on our behalf;
• debt collection companies;
• our clients (where information has been provided to us by someone other than our client);
• a purchaser or successor entity in connection with the sale of our business, a subsidiary of our business, or substantially all of its assets; and
• entities established to help identify illegal activities and prevent fraud.

As noted above, we may disclose your Personal Information to entities that assist us to deliver our services, such as our business associates, contractors, agents or service providers and, members of our structured teams. These third parties may change from time to time. Some examples include technology and internet service providers, data storage providers, digital mail providers who send communications on our behalf and their implementation partners. We may also use graphic designers, printers and posting services to assist us with design, printing and distribution of communications. Where it is necessary for Personal Information to be provided to a third party in connection with the provision of a service to us, we will take reasonable steps within our power to prevent the unauthorized use or unauthorized disclosure of the Personal Information.

In relation to our disclosure of Personal Information to third parties such as agents and associates in foreign countries, we will make such disclosures when we are instructed to do so by our clients in relation to their matters to provide our services, or as may be required by law. You agree that subject to any additional obligations under applicable laws, third parties who receive Personal Information from us may use and disclose the Personal Information subject to their respective privacy policies and laws applicable to them.

We do not disclose Personal Information to third parties for the purpose of third-party direct marketing.

From time to time, we may provide third parties with information in the form of statistical representations about our users collectively and for the purpose of statistical analysis. Where we provide such information to third parties for this limited statistical purpose, we will not provide information in such a way that your identity may be obtained. To the extent this information does not constitute Personal Information (as defined in the Canadian Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act or applicable provincial privacy legislation) or is otherwise not governed by the privacy principles set out by the Canadian Standards Association entitled “Model Code for the Protection of Personal Information” or other applicable privacy legislation, this Privacy Policy will not apply.

c) Other permitted disclosures

We may also disclose your Personal Information under the following circumstances:

• when you have consented to such disclosure;
• when you would reasonably expect us to use or disclose your Personal Information in a certain way;
• when the disclosure is one of the purposes in connection with which the information was obtained or is directly related to the purposes in connection with which the information was obtained;
• when the source of the information is publicly available and, in the particular circumstances, it would not be unfair or unreasonable to disclose the information;
• when authorized or required to do so by a court or under applicable laws or regulations (for example, a subpoena), or where required by a government agency;
• where we consider a company or an individual may be engaged in fraudulent activity or other deceptive practices of which a governmental agency should be made aware;
• to appropriate persons, where your communication suggests possible harm to yourself or others; or
• when disclosure is reasonably necessary for a law enforcement related activity.

d) Cross-border disclosure of your Personal Information

We may disclose your Personal Information outside of Canada for various reasons, such as for the purposes of:

• obtaining legal or other IP professional services in foreign countries; or
• obtaining IP protection in foreign countries.

The types of foreign entities to which we may disclose your Personal Information include:

• our associates, agents or other legal or professional service provider firms in foreign countries;
• government bodies and other entities that administer IP in overseas jurisdictions; and
• our service providers located in foreign countries, which may include technology and internet service providers, data storage providers and digital mail providers who send communications on our behalf.

You agree and acknowledge that the foreign recipients of your Personal Information will be subject to the privacy laws of their local jurisdiction. These foreign privacy laws are likely to be different than Canada, the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act, the information privacy principles set out in that Act and applicable provincial privacy legislation, such that foreign recipients may not be required to protect your Personal Information in a way that provides comparable safeguards to those in your own jurisdiction and you may not be able to seek redress in the relevant overseas jurisdiction in relation to breaches of your privacy.

You acknowledge and agree to such international data and information transfers with respect to Personal Information of the nature described in this Privacy Policy.

Please note that privacy laws in other jurisdictions may provide for a different level of protection in respect of Personal Information than that which is applicable in your jurisdiction.  If you would like to receive more information about our policies and procedures in relation to the cross-border disclosure of your Personal Information or our use of service providers in other jurisdictions, please contact our Privacy Officer at the address given below.

6. Keeping your Personal Information safe

a) Security

We make every effort to ensure Personal Information is kept secure and take reasonable steps to protect it from misuse, loss, interference, unauthorized access, modification or disclosure.

In terms of system security, here are some of the things we do to protect your Personal Information:

• we retain Personal Information in secure hard copies and electronic files;
• we use firewalls, standard software protection programs, password access protections and secure servers;
• Personal Information in files that have been closed and archived may be stored in our offsite storage facility. We take reasonable steps to ensure that any third parties who handle files maintained in offsite facilities (including online data storage facilities) act consistently with this Privacy Policy;
• we regularly review our security arrangements to ensure we are taking reasonable and technically feasible steps available at the time to protect your Personal Information; and
• we take reasonable steps to destroy, erase or permanently de-identify Personal Information as soon as practicable if it is no longer required by us (including being required for record keeping or legal purposes).

As you will appreciate, since no system is 100% secure or error-free, we cannot guarantee that your Personal Information is totally protected, for example, from hackers, interference or misappropriation. You acknowledge that the security of online transactions and the security of communications sent by electronic means or by post cannot be guaranteed. You provide information to us via the internet or by post at your own risk. We cannot accept responsibility for misuse or loss of, or unauthorized access to, your Personal Information where the security of information is not within our control.

If you suspect any misuse or loss of, or unauthorized access to, your Personal Information, please contact us immediately using the contact details set out in section 9.

In the event of a data breach involving a loss of, unauthorized access to or misuse of your Personal Information, we will report such breach to you and any relevant authority as required by law.

b) Third-party websites

Our website may contain links to other websites. You acknowledge that we are not responsible for the privacy or security practices of any third party (including third parties to whom we are permitted to disclose your Personal Information in accordance with this Privacy Policy or any applicable laws). The collection and use of your information by such third parties may be subject to separate privacy and security policies.

7. Accessing, updating and correcting your Personal Information

We use reasonable endeavours to ensure that the Personal Information we collect, use and/or disclose is accurate, complete and up to date.

We request that you keep the information we hold about you as current as possible by advising us of any changes or inaccuracies to your Personal Information in the manner outlined below so that we may continue to improve our service to you.

a) Making a request to access, update or correct your Personal Information

You may ask us for access to your Personal Information or request that your Personal Information be updated and/or corrected. You may also request that we destroy or erase your Personal Information, or you may contact us if you have any questions or complaints about, or if you wish to restrict or object to, how we collect, use, disclose, manage or store your Personal Information. You can contact us for any of these reasons by using the contact details set out in section 9 of this Privacy Policy.

We will respond to your request within 30 days from the date your request is received. We will inform you if this timeframe is not achievable and extend this timeframe as permitted by applicable law.

We may charge a fee to cover the costs of meeting your request if your request is unfounded or excessive.

Unless we are required or permitted by law to refuse to do so, we will, on request, provide you with details of the Personal Information we have collected about you or update, correct and amend your Personal Information in accordance with your request. Where we are also required by applicable law to provide further information about the use or disclosure of your Personal Information we will do so in compliance with that law.

b) Exceptions

If we do not agree to provide you with access to, or to amend or erase, your Personal Information as requested or otherwise meet your requests, we will notify you accordingly. Where appropriate, we will provide you with the reason(s) for our decision and the mechanisms available to complain about the refusal. If the rejection relates to a request to change your Personal Information, you may make a statement about the requested change and we will attach this to your record.

In some circumstances, and subject always to legal obligations to the contrary, we may not be in a position to grant access to your Personal Information or otherwise meet your requests with respect to your Personal Information, including when:

• your Personal Information is not retrievable;
• the request is frivolous or vexatious; or
• providing access or otherwise meeting your request:
  • is reasonably likely to pose a serious threat to the safety of an individual or the public;
  • is likely to impact unreasonably on the privacy of others;
  • would reveal information which relates to existing or anticipated legal proceedings between you and us, which information would not be accessible by the process of discovery in those proceedings;
  • would impact any negotiations between you and us;
  • is unlawful (including being unlawful as directed by a court or tribunal order);
  • is contrary to any rules, codes or other regulatory requirements with which we are required to comply;
  • would likely impact on actions being taken in relation to alleged unlawful activities or misconduct relating to our functions and activities;
  • would be likely to impact any enforcement related activities conducted by any enforcement bodies; or
  • would reveal evaluative information in connection with a commercially sensitive decision-making process.

8. How do you make a privacy complaint?

If you have a problem or complaint, please let us know. We will respond to a complaint as soon as possible and within 10 working days to let you know who is responsible for managing your complaint. We will also try to resolve the complaint within 10 working days. When this is not possible, we will contact you within that time to let you know how long it will take to resolve the complaint.  

If you believe that we have not adequately dealt with your complaint, you may complain to:

• the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (https://www.priv.gc.ca); or
• your local privacy authority.

9. Contact details

If you would like to update or correct your Personal Information, seek access to Personal Information we hold about you, or if you have any questions or complaints about how we collect, use, disclose, manage or store your Personal Information, you can contact us at:

Procido LLP
Contact Person: Privacy Officer, Craig Zawada
Postal Address: 200-165 3^rd Avenue South, Saskatoon, SK S7K 1L8 Canada
Telephone: +1 306 380 7106
Email: Craig.zawada@procido.com

This Privacy Policy was last updated on April 03, 2023.