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Important: Please read these Legal Notices and Terms of Use (these “Notices and Terms”) carefully before accessing this website.
These Notices and Terms create a legal agreement between you (“You”) and Seed Intellectual Property Law Group LLP (“Seed IP”) that governs: (1) the information of Seed IP (the “Information”) made available through this website; (2) the nature of the relationship between You and Seed IP; (3) certain other matters of professional responsibility; (4) Seed IP’s use of Your information gathered by it through this website; and (5) Your use of this website, related systems, and the Information (collectively, the “Seed IP Site”). By accessing any portion of the Seed IP Site, You are indicating that You have read and understood, and that You assent to be bound by, these Notices and Terms, which may be amended from time to time by Seed IP pursuant to the terms herein. If You do not agree to these Notices and Terms, You are not permitted to access the Seed IP Site.
The Information is made available for general informational purposes only and is not intended to constitute specific legal advice or to be a substitute for advice from qualified counsel. Without limiting the foregoing, the Information may not reflect recent developments in the law, may not be complete, and may not be accurate in or applicable to Your jurisdiction. Because the Information is general in nature and may not pertain to Your specific circumstances, You should not act or refrain from acting based on any Information without first obtaining advice from professional counsel qualified in the applicable subject matter and jurisdictions.
A visit to the Seed IP Site, or an inquiry from the Seed IP Site to one of our attorneys or staff members, does not create an attorney-client relationship between You and Seed IP. For this reason, we caution You not to give Seed IP any confidential information until after Seed IP has checked for possible conflicts of interest.
Seed IP has a policy of entering into attorney-client relationships with its clients only in accordance with certain procedures which include executing an engagement letter and addressing professional responsibility conflicts as required by the Bar Associations of the states in which Seed IP maintains offices. You agree that Your access of the Seed IP Site or receipt of the Information, or Your transmission of electronic mail to addresses on the Seed IP Site, does not create an attorney-client relationship between You and Seed IP.
Add: age restriction—you must be at least 18 years of age to use our services.
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3.3 Authorized Jurisdictions; Certifications. While Seed IP practices law in the jurisdiction in which its office is located as well as other jurisdictions, each Seed IP attorney is licensed to practice only in those jurisdictions set forth in that attorney’s biography on the Seed IP Site. Except as specifically stated, each Seed IP attorney is not certified (including as a specialist) by any professional or government authority. The listing of Seed IP attorneys in practice groups is not intended to indicate any professional or governmental certification.
3.4 Principal Office; Responsible Attorney. To the extent the requirements of the Bar Association in Your jurisdiction require such designation: Seed IP’s sole office is its Seattle, Washington office. Seed IP’s responsible attorney for the Seed IP Site is Kevin Costanza for its office in Seattle.
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With respect to information submitted or collected on the Seed IP Site, You accept Seed IP’s privacy policy as set forth in this Section 4. This Section 4 does not pertain to, and Seed IP is not responsible for the privacy practices of, any third party websites to which the Seed IP Site hyperlinks. Certain areas of the Seed IP Site may be subject to additional privacy-related provisions, links to which will be posted in those areas.
4.1 Activity Logging. When You use the Seed IP Site, which may be hosted in part or its entirety by a third party, the Seed IP Site will collect information indirectly and automatically (through, for example, the use of “cookies” or Your “IP address”) about Your activities. Seed IP uses this activity information (the “Activity Information”) for internal purposes such as to administer the Seed IP Site, improve the Seed IP Site, and help Seed IP understand how the Seed IP Site is being used including the demographics and “clickstreams” of its visitors. “Cookies” are small pieces of information stored on Your hard drive, not on the Seed IP Site. You are always free to decline cookies if Your browser permits, but in that case, some portions of the Seed IP Site may not operate properly. An “IP address” is a number that is automatically assigned to Your computer when You use the Internet.
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4.3 Removal of Personally Identifiable Information. Seed IP will use reasonable efforts to remove Your Personally Identifiable Information from our then current Seed IP Site at any time upon Your written request to info@seedip.com. Such removal of Personally Identifiable Information will not ensure the permanent removal of such Personally Identifiable Information from the Seed IP Site. For example, such Personally Identifiable Information may remain in Seed IP’s archival or backup copies of the Seed IP Site.
4.4 Additional Disclosure of Personally Identifiable Information. Seed IP may share Personally Identifiable Information with third parties, including affiliated firms and third parties performing services for or on behalf of Seed IP. Such services may include communications, database, event management, hosting, mailing, and marketing services. Additionally, Seed IP cannot fully ensure that Your Personally Identifiable Information will not be disclosed to third parties. For example, Seed IP may be legally obligated to disclose information to the government or third parties under certain circumstances, third parties may circumvent Seed IP’s security measures to unlawfully intercept or access transmissions or private communications, or an error may occur in the administration of the Seed IP Site. In the unlikely event that Seed IP needs to investigate or resolve possible problems or inquiries, Seed IP may, and You authorize Seed IP to, disclose any information about You to government officials as permitted by applicable law.
4.5 Miscellaneous Privacy Terms. Seed IP has implemented and follows appropriate technical measures to protect against the risks of unauthorized access to, erroneous disclosure of, and unlawful interception of Personally Identifiable Information. You should know, however, that Seed IP cannot fully eliminate such risks. Seed IP hopes this Section 4 clarifies Seed IP’s procedures regarding its collection, use and disclosure of Your information including Personally Identifiable Information. From time to time, Seed IP may modify this Section 4. Such modifications will be effective on the date that Seed IP posts the modified statement to the Seed IP Site. Questions or concerns regarding the privacy policy in this Section 4 may be submitted to info@seedip.com.
5.1 Prohibited Uses. You will not use the Seed IP Site in violation of any applicable law. Without limiting the foregoing, You will not use the Seed IP Site in connection with (a) the infringement of intellectual property rights including Seed IP’s rights in its marks and its articles and alerts; (b) the unauthorized transmission of unsolicited commercial electronic mail; (c) the transmission of defamatory materials; or (d) fraud. You will not violate, attempt to violate, or knowingly facilitate the violation of the security (including access control or authentication systems) or integrity of the Seed IP Site.
5.2 Copyright in Information. The Seed IP Site, including the Information, is protected by United States and international copyright laws. All rights are reserved. Subject to the terms of these Notices and Terms, Seed IP grants to You a limited, nonexclusive, personal license to access, view, download and print the Information solely for noncommercial and informational purposes. You may not modify the Information in any way and You may not remove or obscure any copyright or permission notices provided on or in connection with the Information. Seed IP does not grant to You any rights in its marks. You are free to hyperlink to any page in the publicly available pages of the Seed IP Site; provided, however, that You agree to remove any such hyperlink upon Seed IP’s written request.
5.3 Electronic Mail. Subject to Section 5.1, You may send electronic mail to those addresses made available on the Seed IP Site for the purposes of requesting alerts or other news notification services, submitting voluntary survey responses, responding to or making inquiries regarding Seed IP events, requesting information regarding Seed IP or legal or other services offered by Seed IP, and inquiring about employment opportunities. You agree to cease sending electronic mail to any Seed IP address upon Seed IP’s request.
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5.5 Disclaimer of Liability. To the extent permitted by the law and rules of professional responsibility in the applicable jurisdiction, Seed IP disclaims liability for any lost profits or income, lost business, or lost data, or for any consequential, indirect, exemplary, punitive, special, or incidental damages arising from or relating to the Seed IP Site.
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5.7 Severability. If any provision of these Notices and Terms is unlawful, void, or unenforceable, that provision shall be deemed severable from these Notices and Terms, and will not affect the validity and enforceability of any remaining provisions.
5.8 Miscellaneous. You agree that any dispute arising out of or in connection with the Seed IP Site or these Notices and Terms will be governed by the laws of the State of Washington without reference to conflict of laws principles that would require the application of the laws of any other jurisdiction, and You submit to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the state and federal courts located in King County, Washington. In the event that You gain access to information not intended to be accessed by You, You agree that You will immediately notify Seed IP and lawfully destroy all copies of such information in Your possession. Seed IP may be contacted at info@seedip.com.
We at Seed Intellectual Property Law Group LLP (“Seed IP”) use a variety of technologies to help us to deliver customized visitor experiences. In particular, we may use a technology called "cookies" to provide you with, for example, customized information from our website and its webpages (the "Site"). By agreeing to this Cookies Policy you consent to the use of cookies by us as described in this Cookies Policy.
A cookie is an element of data that a website can send to your browser, which may then store it on your system. Cookies allow us to understand who has seen which pages and advertisements, to determine how frequently particular pages are visited and to determine the most popular areas of our Site. Non personal information such as browser type, operating system and domain names may be collected during visitors' use of the Site and this information may be used by us to measure the number of visitors to the Site.
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The cookies we use for these purposes do not track your Internet usage after leaving our website and do not store your personal information. They will not be used in connection with any other information to identify you in any way.
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Contents
Seed Intellectual Property Law Group LLP (“Seed IP”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal data. This privacy notice will inform you as to how we look after your personal data when you visit our website (regardless of where you visit it from) and tell you about your privacy rights and how the law protects you.
Please also use the glossary to understand the meaning of some of the terms used in this privacy notice.
Purpose of this privacy notice
This privacy notice aims to give you information on how Seed IP collects and processes your personal data through your use of this website, including any data you may provide through this website.
This website is not intended for children and we do not knowingly collect data relating to children.
It is important that you read this privacy notice together with any other privacy notice or fair processing notice we may provide on specific occasions when we are collecting or processing personal data about you so that you are fully aware of how and why we are using your data. This privacy notice supplements the other notices and is not intended to override them.
Controller
Seed IP is an international legal practice with an office in Seattle, Washington, United States of America. This privacy notice is issued on behalf of Seed IP so when we mention “Seed IP”, "we", "us" or "our" in this privacy notice, we are referring to Seed Intellectual Property Law Group LLP, which is responsible for processing your data. Seed IP is the controller and responsible for this website.
If you have any questions about this privacy notice, including any requests to exercise your legal rights, please contact us using the details set out below.
Contact details
Our full details are:
Full name of legal entity: Seed Intellectual Property Law Group LLP
Email address: info@seedip.com
Postal address: 701 Fifth Avenue, Suite 5400, Seattle, WA 98104-7064
You have the right to make a complaint at any time to your respective supervisory authority. The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is the UK supervisory authority for data protection issues. We would, however, appreciate the chance to deal with your concerns before you approach the ICO so please contact us in the first instance.
Your duty to inform us of changes
It is important that the personal data we hold about you is accurate and current. Please keep us informed if your personal data changes during your relationship with us.
Third-party links
This website may include links to third-party websites, plug-ins and applications. Clicking on those links or enabling those connections may allow third parties to collect or share data about you. We do not control these third-party websites and are not responsible for their privacy statements. When you leave our website, we encourage you to read the privacy notice of every website you visit.
Personal data, or personal information, means any information about an individual from which that person can be identified. It does not include data where the identity has been removed (anonymous data).
We may collect, use, store and transfer different kinds of personal data about you which we have grouped together as follows:
We also collect, use and share Aggregated Data such as statistical or demographic data for any purpose. Aggregated Data may be derived from your personal data but is not considered personal data in law as this data does not directly or indirectly reveal your identity. For example, we may aggregate your Usage Data to calculate the percentage of users accessing a specific website feature. However, if we combine or connect Aggregated Data with your personal data so that it can directly or indirectly identify you, we treat the combined data as personal data which will be used in accordance with this privacy notice.
We do not collect any Special Categories of Personal Data about you (this includes details about your race or ethnicity, religious or philosophical beliefs, sex life, sexual orientation, political opinions, trade union membership, information about your health and genetic and biometric data). Nor do we collect any information about criminal convictions and offences.
If you fail to provide personal data
Where we need to collect personal data by law, or under the terms of a contract we have with you and you fail to provide that data when requested, we may not be able to perform the contract we have or are trying to enter into with you (for example, to provide you with goods or services). In this case, we may have to cancel a product or service you have with us but we will notify you if this is the case at the time.
We use different methods to collect data from and about you including through:
Direct interactions. You may give us your Identity and Contact Data by filling in forms or providing other information via our website. This includes personal data you provide when you:
Automated technologies or interactions. As you interact with our website, we may automatically collect Technical Data about your equipment, browsing actions and patterns. We collect this personal data by using cookies, [server logs] and other similar technologies. We may also receive Technical Data about you if you visit other websites employing our cookies. Please see our Cookies Policy for further details.
Third parties or publicly available sources. We may receive personal data about you from various third parties [and public sources] as set out below:
We will only use your personal data when the law allows us to. Most commonly, we will use your personal data in the following circumstances:
Generally we do not rely on consent as a legal basis for processing your personal data other than in relation to sending third party direct marketing communications to you via email or text message. You have the right to withdraw consent to marketing at any time by contacting us.
Purposes for which we will use your personal data
We have set out below, in a table format, a description of all the ways we plan to use your personal data, and which of the legal bases we rely on to do so. We have also identified what our legitimate interests are where appropriate.
Note that we may process your personal data for more than one legal basis depending on the specific purpose for which we are using your data. Please contact us if you need details about the specific legal ground we are relying on to process your personal data where more than one ground has been set out in the section below:
To manage our relationship with you which includes notifying you about changes to our terms or privacy policy
(a) identity
(b) contact
(c) profile
(d) marketing and communications
(a) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
(b) Necessary for our legitimate interests (to keep our records updated and to study how clients use our products/services)
To administer and protect our business and this website (including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, system maintenance, support, reporting and hosting of data)
(a) identity
(b) contact
(c) technical
(a) Necessary for our legitimate interests (for running our business, provision of administration and IT services, network security, to prevent fraud and in the context of a business reorganization or group restructuring exercise)
(b) Necessary to comply with a legal obligation
To deliver relevant website content and advertisements to you and measure or understand the effectiveness of the advertising we serve to you
(a) identity
(b) contact
(c) profile
(d) usage
(e) marketing and communications
(f) technical
Necessary for our legitimate interests (to study how clients use our products/services, to develop them, to grow our business and to inform our marketing strategy)
To use data analytics to improve our website, products/services, marketing, client relationships and experiences
(a) technical
(b) usage
Necessary for our legitimate interests (to define types of clients for our products and services, to keep our website updated and relevant, to develop our business and to inform our marketing strategy)
To make suggestions and recommendations to you about services that may be of interest to you
(a) identity
(b) contact
(c) technical
(d) usage
(e) profile
Necessary for our legitimate interests (to develop our products/services and grow our business)
Marketing
We strive to provide you with choices regarding certain personal data uses, particularly around marketing and advertising.
Promotional offers from us
We may use your Identity, Contact, Technical, Usage and Profile Data to form a view on what we think you may want or need, or what may be of interest to you. This is how we decide which products, services and offers may be relevant for you (we call this marketing).
You will receive marketing communications from us if you have requested information from us or received services from us and, in each case, you have not opted out of receiving that marketing.
Third-party marketing
We may share information with third party partners for the purposes of hosting events. Outside of hosting events, we will get your express opt-in consent before we share your personal data with any company outside Seed IP for marketing purposes.
Opting out
You can ask us or third parties to stop sending you marketing messages at any time by contacting us at info@seedip.com.
Where you opt out of receiving these marketing messages, this will not apply to personal data provided to us as a result of a service provided to you.
Cookies
You can set your browser to refuse all or some browser cookies, or to alert you when websites set or access cookies. If you disable or refuse cookies, please note that some parts of this website may become inaccessible or not function properly. For more information about the cookies we use, please see our Cookies Policy.
Change of purpose
We will only use your personal data for the purposes for which we collected it, unless we reasonably consider that we need to use it for another reason and that reason is compatible with the original purpose. If you wish to get an explanation as to how the processing for the new purpose is compatible with the original purpose, please contact us.
If we need to use your personal data for an unrelated purpose, we will notify you and we will explain the legal basis which allows us to do so.
Please note that we may process your personal data without your knowledge or consent, in compliance with the above rules, where this is required or permitted by law.
We may have to share your personal data with the parties set out below for the purposes set out in the table in paragraph 4 above.
Please note that Seed IP reserves the right to disclose personal information as required in the normal course and scope of business in the provision of services, and where required by applicable law, statute, regulation, or court order.
We require all third parties to respect the security of your personal data and to treat it in accordance with the law. We do not allow our third-party service providers to use your personal data for their own purposes and only permit them to process your personal data for specified purposes and in accordance with our instructions.
We share your personal data within Seed IP. This may involve transferring your data outside the European Economic Area (EEA).
Additionally, many of our external third parties are based outside the European Economic Area (EEA) so their processing of your personal data will involve a transfer of data outside the EEA.
Whenever we internally transfer your data outside of the EEA, or transfer your personal data to external third parties based outside of the EEA, we ensure a similar degree of protection is afforded to it by ensuring at least one of the following safeguards is implemented:
Please contact us if you want further information on the specific mechanism used by us when transferring your personal data out of the EEA.
We have put in place appropriate security measures to prevent your personal data from being accidentally lost, used or accessed in an unauthorized way, altered or disclosed. In addition, we limit access to your personal data to those employees, agents, contractors and other third parties who have a business need to know. They will only process your personal data on our instructions and they are subject to a duty of confidentiality.
We have put in place procedures to deal with any suspected personal data breach and will notify you and any applicable regulator of a breach where we are legally required to do so. Upon discovery of a data breach, we will notify all supervising authorities within 72 hours.
We also keep up-to-date records of the users who have authorized access to information systems.
We will only retain your personal data for as long as necessary to fulfill the purposes we collected it for, including for the purposes of satisfying any legal, accounting, or reporting requirements.
To determine the appropriate retention period for personal data, we consider the amount, nature, and sensitivity of the personal data, the potential risk of harm from unauthorized use or disclosure of your personal data, the purposes for which we process your personal data and whether we can achieve those purposes through other means, and the applicable legal requirements.
Details of retention periods for different aspects of your personal data are available in our retention policy which you can request from us by contacting us.
In some circumstances you can ask us to delete your data: see Request erasure below for further information.
In some circumstances we may anonymize your personal data (so that it can no longer be associated with you) for research or statistical purposes in which case we may use this information indefinitely without further notice to you.
As soon as it is reasonable to assume that the purpose for which persona data was collected is no longer being served by the retention of such personal data and retention is no longer necessary for any other legal or business purposes, the personal data will be destroyed or rendered anonymous.
Under certain circumstances, you have rights under data protection laws in relation to your personal data. You have the right to:
Request access to your personal data (commonly known as a "data subject access request"). This enables you to receive a copy of the personal data we hold about you and to check that we are lawfully processing it.
Request correction of the personal data that we hold about you. This enables you to have any incomplete or inaccurate data we hold about you corrected, though we may need to verify the accuracy of the new data you provide to us.
Request erasure of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to delete or remove personal data where there is no good reason for us continuing to process it. You also have the right to ask us to delete or remove your personal data where you have successfully exercised your right to object to processing (see below), where we may have processed your information unlawfully or where we are required to erase your personal data to comply with local law. Note, however, that we may not always be able to comply with your request of erasure for specific legal reasons which will be notified to you, if applicable, at the time of your request.
Object to processing of your personal data where we are relying on a legitimate interest (or those of a third party) and there is something about your particular situation which makes you want to object to processing on this ground as you feel it impacts on your fundamental rights and freedoms. You also have the right to object where we are processing your personal data for direct marketing purposes. In some cases, we may demonstrate that we have compelling legitimate grounds to process your information which override your rights and freedoms.
Request restriction of processing of your personal data. This enables you to ask us to suspend the processing of your personal data in the following scenarios: (a) if you want us to establish the data's accuracy; (b) where our use of the data is unlawful but you do not want us to erase it; (c) where you need us to hold the data even if we no longer require it as you need it to establish, exercise or defend legal claims; or (d) you have objected to our use of your data but we need to verify whether we have overriding legitimate grounds to use it.
Request the transfer of your personal data to you or to a third party. We will provide to you, or a third party you have chosen, your personal data in a structured, commonly used, machine-readable format. Note that this right only applies to automated information which you initially provided consent for us to use or where we used the information to perform a contract with you.
Withdraw consent at any time where we are relying on consent to process your personal data. However, this will not affect the lawfulness of any processing carried out before you withdraw your consent. If you withdraw your consent, we may not be able to provide certain products or services to you. We will advise you if this is the case at the time you withdraw your consent
If you wish to exercise any of the rights set out above, please contact us.
No fee usually required
You will not have to pay a fee to access your personal data (or to exercise any of the other rights). However, we may charge a reasonable fee if your request is clearly unfounded, repetitive or excessive. Alternatively, we may refuse to comply with your request in these circumstances.
What we may need from you
We may need to request specific information from you to help us confirm your identity and ensure your right to access your personal data (or to exercise any of your other rights). This is a security measure to ensure that personal data is not disclosed to any person who has no right to receive it. We may also contact you to ask you for further information in relation to your request to speed up our response.
Time limit to respond
We try to respond to all legitimate requests within one month. Occasionally it may take us longer than a month if your request is particularly complex or you have made a number of requests. In this case, we will notify you and keep you updated.
Legitimate Interest means the interest of our business in conducting and managing our business to enable us to give you the best service/product and the best and most secure experience. We make sure we consider and balance any potential impact on you (both positive and negative) and your rights before we process your personal data for our legitimate interests. We do not use your personal data for activities where our interests are overridden by the impact on you (unless we have your consent or are otherwise required or permitted to by law). You can obtain further information about how we assess our legitimate interests against any potential impact on you in respect of specific activities by contacting us.
Performance of Contract means processing your data where it is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or to take steps at your request before entering into such a contract.
Comply with a legal or regulatory obligation means processing your personal data where it is necessary for compliance with a legal or regulatory obligation that we are subject to.
External third parties
Service providers acting as processors based in the UK and US who provide IT and system administration services.
On November 12, 2020, the Departments of Health and Human Services, Labor, and the Treasury finalized the Transparency in Coverage Rule that requires group health plans to create a member-facing price comparison tool and post publicly available machine-readable files that include in-network (INN) negotiated payment rates and historical out-of-network (OON) charges for covered items and services, including prescriptions drugs.
Through Healthcare Management Administrators, we are committed to supporting the Transparency in Coverage Rule by making MRFs available for our self-funded customers beginning July 1, 2022.
Self-funded plans are required to make the MRFs publicly accessible. This requires providing a link to MRFs prepared by the insurer/TPA. To meet this requirement, MRFs will be posted on https://sawus2prdticmrfhma.z5.web.core.windows.net/. This link leads to the machine-readable files includes negotiated service rates and out-of-network allowed amounts between health plans and healthcare providers. The machine-readable files are formatted to allow researchers, regulators, and application developers to more easily access and analyze data. This location is publicly available and accessible to all, and no authentication is required.
Revised June 2022
