Thank
you for visiting the United States Patent and Trademark Office
website and reviewing our privacy policy. Our privacy policy is simple:
we
collect no personal information about you when you visit our
website unless you choose to provide that information to us.
Submitting personal information is voluntary. When
you voluntarily submit information, it constitutes
your consent to the use of the information for the purpose(s) stated
at the time of collection. See the Privacy
Act of 1974 (P.L. 93-579) for more information on your rights under
the Privacy Act.
For the protection of users of our Web sites, we have safeguards
in place to identify and prevent unauthorized attempts to access
or cause harm to information
and systems.
Here
is how we handle information about your visit to our website:
Information
Collected and Stored Automatically
The
USPTO web server collects and saves only the default information
customarily logged by World-Wide Web server software. Specifically,
for each http request received, the date and time, the originating
IP address, the object requested, and the completion
status of
the request is collected and saved.
We
analyze these logs monthly to determine the traffic through the
server during that month in hits, the number of pages served,
and the level of demand for pages of interest during each month.
We may also analyze accesses to particular pages to determine
US versus non-US use, government agency versus private use, and
other statistics that may be of value to us in establishing priorities
and allocating resources in order to better accomplish our dissemination
mission.
E-mail submitted
to USPTO is saved in accordance to Department of Commerce policy
and NARA guidelines. If you choose to provide us with personal
information in e-mail, we use that information to respond to your
message and to help us get you the information you have requested.
We do not collect personal information for any purpose other than
to respond to you. We only share the information you give us with
another government agency if your inquiry relates to that agency,
or as otherwise required by law. Moreover, we do not store any
personal information independent of the e-mail message, create
individual profiles with the information you provide, or give it
to any private organizations. We do not collect information for
commercial marketing.
Kids Pages
We are especially concerned about protecting the privacy of children. We hope parents and teachers are involved in children’s Internet explorations. We respect the need to protect the identity of any children who participate in an Internet exhibition of their work. We do not request any information from children on the Kids Pages. We do, however, sometimes encourage them to participate in contests, but such participation is carried out through postal mail. Click here for more details on contest rules and regulations.
Use of Persistent Cookies and Tracking Technology:
We do not use persistent cookies or persistent tracking technologies, such as those used for session customization for returning visitors, on our website.
Use of Cookies on TEAS and OEMS:
We use memory resident cookies (not persistent) on our TEAS and OEMS systems to maintain browser session integrity. No personal information is gathered and it is not stored on your hard drive. When you exit our site, the cookie terminates.
FirstGov Search
We utilize FirstGov.gov to perform searches of our webpages. When you request a search, a memory resident (session) cookie is generated by FirstGov to maintain the search query information during the search session. When you complete the search, the cookie terminates.
Site Survey Instrument
We use a memory resident (session) cookie to store a page counter to trigger our website customer satisfaction survey. A voluntary survey instrument collects responses to a standard set of questions and forwards them along with the location of the web page that you were viewing when the survey was activated to FORESEE RESULTS for aggregation and reporting purposes. No information regarding what you were doing on the website or what other pages you visited during your session is collected. When you exit the USPTO.GOV website, the cookie terminates. See About the USPTO.GOV Site Survey for more information.
Links
to Other Sites
Our
Website has links to many other federal agencies. In a few cases
we link to private organizations, with their permission. Before
leaving our website, a page will appear informing you that you
are leaving our server. Once you link to another site, you are
subject to the privacy policy of the new site.
Privacy Act Systems of Records
Where this site requests information that will be stored in a Privacy
Act system of records, an individual Privacy Act notice
is provided. Should there ever be a need to use information for a
purpose other than one already provided for under the Privacy
Act, we will give
you specific instructions on how you may consent to
such use. You are never required to give such consent.
Information stored in any Privacy Act System of
Records is handled as set forth in the applicable System of Records
Notice
in order
to preserve its security and confidentiality. Privacy Act System
of Records notices are available at: http://www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/aces/PrivacyAct.shtml
Privacy Impact Assessments
OMB Circular A-11, Exhibit 300 Privacy
Impact Assessments
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