Privacy Policy

Schwegman Lundberg & Woessner, P.A. (“SLW”) is a boutique law firm dedicated to the practice of intellectual property law. We created www.slwip.com (“Website”), provide accompanying client portals, and may develop future sites or features (collectively “SLW Sites”) so that you may learn more about the firm and the legal services we offer, as well as manage certain aspects of your existing relationship with us. The Website is intended for informational purposes only. None of the information contained in this Website constitutes either legal advice or a solicitation of any particular prospective client.

No Legal Representation

We intend the information on this Website to be useful, but we do not guarantee that any of the information contained here is correct, complete, or up to date. An attorney-client relationship between you and SLW cannot be created by visiting the Website or any of the SLW Sites. The only way to become our client is by specific and explicit agreement with an individual attorney at SLW. By providing general information about our firm on the Website and SLW Sites, we are not soliciting clients nor do we propose any type of representation. You should not act or rely on any information contained on the Website or any of the SLW Sites without seeking the advice of an attorney. The determination of the need for legal services and the choice of a lawyer are extremely important decisions and should not be based solely upon advertisements or self-proclaimed expertise.

Any information that you send us in an e-mail message may not be confidential or privileged. Sending us an e-mail message will not make you a client of SLW. If you are interested in having us represent you, you should call us so we can determine whether the matter is one for which we are willing or able to accept professional responsibility. We will not make this determination by e-mail communication. The telephone number for our office is listed in this Website. We reserve the right to decline any representation. We may be required to decline representation if it would create a conflict of interest with our other clients. Do not, therefore, provide us with any confidential information, whether by letter, e-mail, or telephone, until after we have had an opportunity to determine whether representing you would create a conflict of interest with any of our other clients. Any unsolicited information we receive from you will not be treated as an attorney-client confidence.

SLW has tried to comply with all legal and ethical requirements in compiling this Website and SLW Sites. We do not seek to, and will not, represent clients based on their review of any portion of this Website or SLW Sites that does not comply with applicable legal or ethical requirements.

Copyright Materials

All materials contained on this website are the copyrighted property of SLW, unless a separate copyright notice is placed on the material. Reproduction, distribution, republication, and retransmission of material contained within our website is prohibited in accordance with copyright laws unless the prior written permission of SLW has been obtained.

Third-Party Content

Some links within the Website or SLW Sites lead to websites created and maintained by others SLW does not necessarily sponsor, endorse, or otherwise approve of the materials appearing in such sites, and SLW is not responsible for the privacy practices of such sites. Links to other sites are not intended to state or imply that SLW sponsors or is affiliated or associated in any way with the information at those other websites. Furthermore, the opinions expressed in materials contained on this website are the opinions of the individual author and may not reflect the opinions of SLW or any of its partners or employees.

Children

We do not knowingly collect Personal Information from children under the age of 16, and no one under the age of 16 may provide us with Personal Information. The Website and SLW Sites are not intended for children under the age of 16. As such, we do not have actual knowledge that we “sell” or “share” Personal Information of children under the age of 16. If we learn that we have collected or received Personal Information from a child under the age of 16 without parental consent, we will delete that Personal Information. If you believe we might have any Personal Information about a child under the age of 16, please contact us.

Personal Information Collection

We may collect the following Personal Information about you:

Category	Examples and Sources
Contact information	Your name, phone number, email address, and postal address. We collect this information directly from you.
Identification information*	Tax identification number, state and/or attorney license number. We collect this information directly from you as required to verify or facilitate payment and as necessary to provide the services.
Financial information	SLW uses safe, third-party payment processors.  We may collect information regarding your bank account number or other payment method while we assist you with processing a payment, but do not retain this information or store this information.  We may use services and sites you give us to access for the purpose of collecting payment information or facilitating ACH processing. We collect this information directly from you to facilitate payment of our services.
Employment information	Your title, employer name, industry type, and other industry affiliations. We collect this information directly from you or through publicly available sources (e.g., social media sites or websites).
Commercial information	We collect information about the products or services in which you are or may be interested. We automatically collect this information from you using cookies and other web tracking technologies.
Internet or other similar network activity	We collect information on your web-based interaction with the Website or SLW Sites. This may include the site you came from before visiting the Website or SLW Sites and the site you went to after leaving the Website or SLW Sites. This also may include the duration of your browsing session, pages viewed on the Website or SLW Sites, device ID, IP address, and other online identifiers. We automatically collect this information from you using cookies and other web tracking technologies.
Account credentials*	If you choose to create an account with us, we collect your username, password, and any other information necessary to access your account with us.

We retain the above categories of Personal Information for as long as reasonably necessary to achieve the business purposes for which they were collected. Our general business purpose is to provide you with legal services. We may need to retain some or all of your Personal Information to comply with other legal obligations related to record retention and document preservation, tax and financial reporting, insurance requirements, or other timelines as required by law.

Purpose of Collection

We collect and disclose Personal Information to identify you, confirm facts about you, facilitate the delivery of services to you, and help us identify content that may be of interest to you. We also collect and disclose your Personal Information for the following purposes:

• Operate, maintain, improve, and protect the Website or any of the SLW Sites, including processing your requests.
• Communicate with you regarding your inquiries about, the Website, SLW Sites, and legal services that may interest you, including tailoring such communications to your potential interests or contacting you regarding this Privacy Statement, the Website, or any of the SLW Sites.
• Develop new features or services, including analyzing the Website, any of the SLW Sites, or our
• Comply with legal obligations and protect, assess, or assert the rights, property, or safety of the Website, any of the SLW Sites or others.
• To administer Continue Legal Education (CLE) credit if applicable.

Disclosure of Personal Information

We may disclose some or all of the Personal Information that is described above as follows:

• Within SLW to assist in our everyday operations, administration, and provision of legal services. This includes our member firms.
• To third parties within the context of legal services that we provide to you. Depending on the nature of the specific legal services, this may include, but is not limited to, courts, tribunals, assessors, accrediting bodies, and adverse or co-parties.
• We may also share, as may be required or permitted by law, information about you to credit reporting agencies, government agencies, law enforcement, or other parties pursuant to legal process or to assist a government investigation or law enforcement.
• With our attorneys, insurers, consultants, or similar advisors to assess or assert our legal or business interests.
• With our service providers that help us operate, improve, maintain, and protect our services, relating to the Website or any of the SLW Sites. This includes third-party data analytics, marketing, and advertising providers that may collect Personal Information about you over time and across different websites, applications, and devices for the purposes of targeted advertising.
• Within the context of a merger, reorganization, asset transfer, bankruptcy, or similar business transaction, where all or a portion of SLW or its assets, including your Personal Information, may be transferred to a third party.

This Privacy Statement complements all other legal and professional obligations that may apply to SLW within the context of an attorney-client relationship, including the duty of confidentiality. Nothing in this Privacy Statement contradicts, replaces, or amends these obligations.

Tracking & Cookies

Similar to other websites, the Website and SLW Sites may utilize a standard technology called “cookies” and web server logs to collect information about how the Website and SLW Sites are used.

What are cookies and what data do they collect?

Cookies are a feature of web browser software that allows web servers to recognize the computer used to access a website. These small pieces of data are stored by a user’s web browser on the user’s hard drive.

There are many different types of cookies and uses of data collected by them. Information gathered through cookies and web server logs may include the date and time of website visits, the pages viewed, time spent on our website, and the websites visited just before and just after our website.

Your visit to the Website or any of the SLW Sites is tracked through standard web traffic statistics programs which keep records of traffic, as well as numerical counts of visitors by domain, URL, search engine, keywords used, and other standard web measurements. We also use cookies to track your interaction with the Website or any of the SLW Sites. We use this information to help recognize that a device has visited the Website or any of the SLW Sites previously, therefore allowing us to recommend SLW content that is relevant to you.

Third-party analytics services

We may use services hosted by third parties, such as Google Analytics, to collect information about how users use the Websites or any of the SLW Sites, allowing us to compile reports and improve its functionality. Some third-party services collect information, such as the information sent by a browser as part of a web page request, IP addresses, time and duration of website visits, and/or how you found the Website or any of the SLW Sites, such as via a search engine or social media.

Marketing

Other third-party services may also combine the personal information you provide us (such as your email address) with cookies or other website tracking mechanisms. These services may be used to gather information, allowing us to provide you with more information about products or services in which you might be interested. When you submit personal information (such as your name or email address) on the site, we will ask if you agree that we may use it to market and advertise our products and services.

If you choose to register for mailings including webinars, blogs, and firm updates, you’ll need to provide us with certain required information pertinent to your profession, such as your name, e-mail address, organization, state, and job title. The contact information you give us is kept in a database and the materials you request will be e-mailed to you. Each e-mail will contain information on how to be removed from our mailing lists. You can also unsubscribe at any time by sending our webmaster a message at compliance@slwip.com. Please include your name and e-mail address in the body of the message. We will do our best to respond to your request within three business days.

How to manage your cookies

Since many websites rely on cookies and/or other tracking tools to help tailor a user’s experience, most Internet browsers are initially set up to accept them. You can disable cookies or other types of tracking tools through your computer or device’s Internet browser settings. However, some parts of this website may not operate correctly if you disable cookies. You should check your Internet browser settings if you have any questions regarding disabling cookies.

 “Do Not Track”

The Website and other SLW Sites do not recognize “Do Not Track” signals. However, the Website or any of the SLW sites may recognize other opt-out preference signals, such as the Global Privacy Control (“GPC”), which you may set through your browser or browser extension.

Rights Regarding Personal Information

You may have the following rights (“Data Subject Rights”) with respect to the Personal Information that we collect or process about you. These rights differ depending on where you live (including specifically California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, Nevada, Iowa, and Utah). Please note that we reserve the right to honor your Data Subject Rights as required by applicable law.

• Right to Access and Obtain a Copy: If you ask us, we will confirm whether we are processing your Personal Information. You may request to know the types of third parties with whom we share your Personal Information and the categories of Personal Information we share with them. Additionally, you may request that we provide you with a copy of all Personal information you are lawfully entitled to receive.
• Right to Amend: If you believe your Personal Information is inaccurate or incomplete, you are entitled to request that we correct or complete it.
• Right to Delete: You may request that we delete or remove your Personal Information.
• Right to Restrict Processing: You may ask us to restrict or “block” the processing of your Personal Information in certain circumstances, such as if we process Personal Information that is considered “sensitive” under applicable state laws or engage in automated decision-making.
• Right to Opt Out of Targeted Advertising: Targeted advertising is the practice of serving you tailored advertisements based your Personal Information gathered across other businesses, websites, applications, or services. You have the right to opt out of this practice.
• Right to Opt Out of Sales: Some states may consider targeted advertising a “sale” of Personal Information. You may request that we not “sell” your Personal Information.
• Right to Non-discrimination: We will not discriminate against you for exercising these rights, but we may charge a reasonable fee as permitted by law in fulfilling these rights, such as if you request multiple copies of your Personal Information.
• Right to Appeal: If we deny your request to exercise your Data Subject Rights, you may have the right to appeal the decision with us. If you would like to appeal a prior decision, please submit an appeal request to us using the contact information listed at the end of this Privacy Statement. Please include “Appeal” in your request and information that will help us locate your prior request. Additionally, you may have the ability to contact your state’s attorney general if you have concerns about the results of the appeal.

If you or your authorized agent wish to exercise any of these Data Subject Rights, please contact us by following the steps listed at the end of this Privacy Statement. Before responding to your request to exercise Data Subject Rights, we may require additional information from you to verify your identity or clarify your specific request. We will try to comply with your request as soon as reasonably practicable and in compliance with applicable law. Where appropriate, we will work with third parties in order to fulfil your request.

Additional Notice to California Residents

In the past 12 months, we have collected the Personal Information described above, and disclosed it to the third parties for the reasons identified above, as listed in “Disclosure of Personal Information” and “Purpose of Collection.”  The Personal Information listed in “Personal Information Collection” may be categorized as follows under the California Consumer Privacy Act (“CCPA”):

• Identifiers
• Categories of Personal Information described in Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.80(e)
• Commercial information
• Internet or electronic network activity information
• Professional or employment-related information
• Sensitive Personal Information (government-issued identification numbers and login credentials)

We engage in targeted advertising, which may be considered “sales” or “shares” of Personal Information according to CCPA. Accordingly, in the last 12 months, we may have “sold” or “shared” identifiers, commercial information, and internet or electronic network activity information with third-party data analytics providers and marketing or advertising networks. If you wish to request to opt out of this use of your information, please contact us at +1 612-373-6900 and ask for our Data Security Officer or email us at compliance@slwip.com with this subject line: Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information.

We do not use or disclose Sensitive Personal Information for purposes other than those specified in Cal. Civ. Code § 1798.121.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us at +1 612-373-6900 and ask for our Data Security Officer or by emailing us at compliance@slwip.com.

Changes to Our Privacy Statement

By using the Website or any of the SLW Sites, you consent to our use of your information as described in this Privacy Statement. We reserve the right to change our Privacy Statement without advance notice. Should we update or replace this Privacy Statement, we will post it on this the Website, required by law.