1. Scope
This Privacy Policy applies to the EP Validation & Renewal Fee Calculator provided by Patent Attorneys Weisse, Moltmann & Willems PartG mbB.
The calculator is a purely informational tool. It visualizes the official national and Unitary Patent renewal fees payable after grant of a European patent, based on the entries made by the user. It does not replace legal advice and is not a fee quote.
2. Controller and data protection contact
The controller responsible for processing personal data in connection with this calculator is:
Patent Attorneys
Weisse, Moltmann & Willems PartG mbB
Am Lomberg 13
42555 Velbert
Germany
Phone: +49 (0) 2052 – 95010
Email: info[at]wmw-patent[dot]de
For privacy-related questions about this calculator, please use the contact details above.
3. How the calculator works
The calculator is designed to process the data entered by the user on the page in order to prepare the fee visualization. Unless you actively use the EP number lookup (which connects to an external service via this website’s server), the entries are used solely for the calculation shown in your browser. The calculator contains no contact or request form and does not itself transmit any case data to WMW.
The only way to contact WMW from this calculator is the external link to the WMW website: the “Contact WMW” link leads to the English contact page on www.wmw-patent.de. From that point, the privacy policy of wmw-patent.de applies. No case data is automatically transmitted by clicking the link.
If you contact WMW through that website, WMW processes the transmitted information to respond to your request, review the data, prepare next steps and, where applicable, handle a potential or existing instruction.
4. Categories of personal data
Depending on how you use the calculator and whether you contact WMW, the following categories of data may be processed:
- contact data, such as name, email address, telephone number, company and address, if provided by you;
- case and patent-related data, such as EP application or publication references, filing dates, validation country selections, the Unitary Patent choice and generated calculation summaries;
- communication data, such as your message and related correspondence;
- technical access data, such as IP address, date and time of access, browser type, operating system, referrer URL, log data and similar information required to deliver and secure the website.
Please avoid entering confidential or sensitive personal data unless it is necessary for your request.
5. Purposes and legal bases
WMW processes personal data for the following purposes and legal bases:
- providing and securing the calculator and the website infrastructure on the basis of legitimate interests in operating a functional and secure online tool;
- responding to enquiries and taking steps prior to a possible instruction or contract;
- reviewing transmitted case data and preparing or performing patent-law services, where applicable;
- fulfilling legal, tax, accounting, professional and regulatory obligations;
- using consent where consent is required, in particular for non-essential access to or storage of information on a user device or for optional services.
Where processing is based on legitimate interests, those interests include providing a reliable calculator, preventing misuse, maintaining IT security, responding to enquiries, and documenting business communications where necessary.
6. Recipients and external services
Personal data may be processed by WMW personnel and, where necessary, by service providers that support hosting, IT security, email, communication, maintenance or website operations. Such providers are involved only to the extent necessary for the relevant purpose.
6.1 Hosting and email transport (processor)
This website is hosted by STRATO AG, Otto-Ostrowski-Straße 7, 10249 Berlin, Germany. STRATO acts as a processor within the meaning of Art. 28 GDPR for hosting and server logging. A data processing agreement is in place. Server log files (including IP address, request line, status code, user agent, referrer and timestamp) may be created automatically by the hosting environment for operational and security purposes; the legal basis is Art. 6(1)(f) GDPR (legitimate interest in providing a stable and secure service).
6.2 No on-page contact or request form
The calculator does not contain a contact or quote-request form and does not send emails. No contact details are collected through this website. Renewal fee amounts are contained in the page itself; current exchange rates are obtained as described in section 6.6.
6.3 External interfaces triggered by user action
- EPO OPS: If a user actively requests an EP number lookup, the entered publication or application reference is forwarded by this website’s server-side proxy (
ops-proxy.php) to the European Patent Office Open Patent Services interface in order to retrieve the filing date and bibliographic data. The request is performed by the server, so your IP address and browser are not directly disclosed to the EPO. - External link to wmw-patent.de: Clicking the “Contact WMW” link or the WMW logo opens the WMW firm website. From that point, the privacy policy of wmw-patent.de applies.
6.4 Fonts
Web fonts are served directly from this website (self-hosted). No font requests are made to Google Fonts servers or to other third-party font providers.
6.5 Web analytics — Google Analytics 4 (consent based)
Subject to your prior consent given through the on-page consent banner, this website uses Google Analytics 4 (provider: Google Ireland Limited, Gordon House, Barrow Street, Dublin 4, Ireland; parent company: Google LLC, USA), property G-SHPC68YE9Y, to collect pseudonymous statistics about website usage.
If consent is granted, Google Analytics:
- sets cookies named
_gaand_ga_SHPC68YE9Yon your device; - collects pseudonymous data such as pages viewed, time on page, country (derived from a shortened IP), browser, operating system, device category, screen size, language and referrer;
- processes your IP address in shortened form (Google Analytics 4 does not store full IP addresses);
- does not use Google Signals, advertising features or remarketing on this property (these are switched off in the configuration).
Until consent is given, the Google Analytics script is not loaded: your browser makes no connection to Google, no cookies are set and no data is sent. The script is loaded only after you click “Accept analytics” or save a corresponding choice in the cookie settings.
Legal basis: your consent under Art. 6(1)(a) GDPR and § 25 Abs. 1 TDDDG. You can withdraw consent at any time, with effect for the future, by clicking the “Cookie Settings” link in the footer and switching analytics off (or by deleting the wmw_privacy_preferences_v2 entry in your browser’s local storage).
Recipients: Google Ireland Limited as processor under Art. 28 GDPR (a data processing addendum is in place); aggregated reporting data may be processed by Google LLC in the United States.
Transfer to a third country: Google may process data in the United States. Google LLC is certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework; the transfer is therefore based on an adequacy decision (Art. 45 GDPR). In addition, Google has put EU Standard Contractual Clauses in place. More information is available in Google’s privacy policy at policies.google.com/privacy and Google’s Analytics-specific data terms at business.safety.google/analytics/.
Storage period: cookies set by Google Analytics expire after up to 24 months (_ga) and after up to 13 months (_ga_SHPC68YE9Y); aggregated reporting data is retained inside the Google Analytics account in line with the property’s data-retention setting.
6.6 Exchange rates
To convert renewal fees set in national currencies into euros, this website’s server (fx-rates.php) retrieves the current euro reference rates of the European Central Bank and, for the Albanian lek, Macedonian denar and Serbian dinar, the monthly accounting rates of the European Commission (InforEuro), and stores them temporarily on the server. These requests are made by the server and contain no data about you or your case; your browser does not contact the ECB or the European Commission. If the rates cannot be retrieved, the calculator uses the rates stored in the page.
Data may also be disclosed to authorities, courts, professional advisers or other recipients if required by law, professional duties, the establishment or defence of legal claims, or the performance of a mandate.
7. International transfers
Some external providers or technical infrastructure providers may process data outside the European Economic Area. Where this occurs, WMW relies on applicable transfer mechanisms, such as adequacy decisions, standard contractual clauses or statutory derogations where permitted.
For Google Analytics (see 6.5), processing in the United States is currently based on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework adequacy decision and, where applicable, Standard Contractual Clauses. For the EPO OPS interface (see 6.3), the processing takes place at the European Patent Office in Europe.
8. Storage and retention
Calculator entries that are not submitted to WMW are not intended to be stored by WMW through the calculator page. Server log files generated by the hosting environment for operational and security purposes are retained only for as long as necessary for those purposes and are then deleted or anonymised.
Enquiries, transmitted case data and related communications are retained only for as long as necessary for the relevant purpose and in accordance with applicable legal, tax, accounting and professional retention obligations.
This website uses non-essential analytics cookies only after prior consent given through the cookie banner. If analytics consent is not given, Google Analytics is not loaded and no analytics cookies are set. The strictly necessary wmw_privacy_preferences_v2 entry that records your consent choice is retained until you clear it through the “Cookie Settings” link in the footer or through your browser. Storage durations of the analytics cookies (_ga, _ga_SHPC68YE9Y) are listed in the Cookie Policy.
9. Voluntary provision of data
Use of the calculator is voluntary. Certain data is necessary to generate a meaningful estimate or to respond to your request. If you do not provide the relevant information, the calculator may not produce the desired result and WMW may be unable to respond to or assess your request.
10. Automated decisions and profiling
The calculator generates an automated fee estimate based on the values entered by the user. This estimate has no legal or similarly significant effect and is not a binding quote. WMW does not use this calculator for profiling or automated decision-making within the meaning of Article 22 GDPR.
11. Your rights
Subject to the applicable legal requirements, you may have the right to request access to your personal data, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, data portability and objection to processing. Where processing is based on consent, you may withdraw consent at any time with effect for the future.
You also have the right to lodge a complaint with a competent supervisory authority. For WMW in North Rhine-Westphalia, the competent supervisory authority is the Landesbeauftragte für Datenschutz und Informationsfreiheit Nordrhein-Westfalen, Kavalleriestraße 2-4, 40213 Düsseldorf, Germany, email: poststelle[at]ldi.nrw.de.
12. Updates
This Privacy Policy may be updated if the calculator, the website environment, external services or legal requirements change.