Privacy Policy

Effective November 2, 2026

This policy says what personal information Patent Atlas collects about the people who visit this website, start a free trial or hold an account, what we do with it, who receives it, how long we keep it, and the rights you have over it.

1. 1. Who we are

   Patent Atlas™ is a patent analytics service provided by Harrity & Harrity, LLP ("Harrity", "we", "us"), 11350 Random Hills Rd, Fairfax, VA 22030, United States. Harrity decides how and why the personal information described here is used and is responsible for it.

   This policy covers this website and the Patent Atlas application. It does not cover Harrity's other websites or its legal services.

   If you use Patent Atlas under an agreement between Harrity and your organization, that agreement controls where it conflicts with this policy, and we may process information about you on your organization's behalf as the agreement describes.

2. 2. Information we collect

   We collect the following personal information, from you, from your browser, from your organization if it arranges your account, and from our payment processor.

   • Account details: your name, your work email address, and the company or law firm you work for, or the organization name you type in if yours is not in our list. When you start, or try to start, a free trial we also record the time you accepted the Terms and Conditions and acknowledged this policy, the version you were shown, the IP address and browser type you used, and, if we could not offer you a trial, the reason.
   • Information from your organization: if your employer arranges accounts for its people, the names and work email addresses of the people it asks us to set up, the company or law firm each should land on, and the terms of its subscription.
   • Your password. Our servers pass it to our sign-in provider, Amazon Cognito, when you set it or sign in, and do not store it. Cognito keeps it in protected form, and we cannot retrieve it.
   • Sign-in and security records: the time of each sign-in and of your activity in the service, your IP address, and your browser and device type as your browser reports them. Our server logs record sign-in attempts and account changes with your email address and the network your request came from. When you confirm a browser with a code we email you, we record that browser's type and the date.
   • Activity in the service: each analytics page your account opens, when, and which company or law firm the page shows.
   • Website analytics, for every visitor: we use Google Analytics on this website and in the service. For each page you open it records the page's address, including any company, law firm or comparison named in it (we remove other details from the address first), the page that referred you, your browser and device type, and an approximate location that Google works out from your IP address. Administrator pages send nothing, and visits by Harrity staff and testers are marked so that our reports can leave them out.
   • Your saved work and settings: bookmarks, favorites, pinned companies and firms, saved filter sets, cost rates, the company or law firm you land on after signing in, and display preferences.
   • Billing information: if you subscribe, Stripe, our payment processor, collects your card and billing details. From Stripe we receive your card's brand, last four digits and expiry date, your billing name and address, any tax ID you enter, your plan and billing cycle, your invoices and payments, and the reason a payment was declined. We never receive your full card number or security code.
   • Survey answers: if you answer the short survey about why you did not subscribe or why you are cancelling, we keep your answers with your email address, the date, the IP address they were sent from, and whether you were on a free trial or cancelling a subscription.
   • Messages you send us: what you write when you email us, and your contact details.
   • Email interaction: the email we send about Patent Atlas through HubSpot records whether you open it and which links you click. Sign-in code and password reset emails record neither.
   • Product analytics, for Harrity personnel only: when a Harrity employee uses the service, we record which pages they open and which kinds of element they click, using PostHog. We do not record this for customers or trial users.

   You must give your name, a work email address and a password to hold an account, and billing details to subscribe. Without them we cannot provide the service. Everything else we hold is created as you use it.

   Please do not send us sensitive personal information, such as government identification numbers, health information or financial account numbers, or confidential client information, through the service or by email. The service does not need any of it.

3. 3. How we use information

   We use personal information to:

   • create and run your account, confirm your email address, sign you in, and send sign-in codes and password resets;
   • provide the service, including your saved work, settings and landing page;
   • decide whether you can start a free trial: we do not offer one to addresses at free or disposable email providers or at companies that sell competing products, and we allow one free trial per email address;
   • keep the service secure and enforce one person per account, using the checks described under "Automated security checks";
   • process subscriptions and payments, and keep invoices and financial records;
   • send service messages about your account, your trial, your subscription and your payments;
   • send email about Patent Atlas and Harrity's other analytics products, including follow-up email during and after a free trial, which you can stop at any time with the unsubscribe link in each message;
   • understand how the service is used and why people stop using it, improve it, and develop new features and products;
   • create aggregated or de-identified information, as described below; and
   • comply with the law, respond to lawful requests, establish or defend legal claims, and enforce our agreements.

   The searches you run in Patent Atlas, the pages you open, your saved work and the company or law firm you land on can reveal client matters and business plans. Harrity does not use that activity for its legal practice or to win legal clients. Within Harrity, only Patent Atlas administrators can see it, to run, support, secure and improve the service, unless the law requires us to disclose it.

   We may combine information from many accounts, or remove the details that identify a person, so that the result does not identify you or your organization. We may use and share such aggregated or de-identified information, for example in benchmarks and research, and we will not try to re-identify it.

   We will not use personal information for a purpose that is incompatible with those described here without telling you first.

4. 4. Automated security checks

   A Patent Atlas account is for one person. To keep it that way, and to stop automated copying of the service, we run automated checks on the sign-in and activity records described above:

   • a browser that identifies itself as an automation tool cannot sign in or use the service;
   • a browser the account does not remember must enter a code that we email to the account's address, and a browser is remembered for 30 days only if you tick "Stay signed in" or confirmed it during free trial sign-up;
   • an account holds one session at a time, so signing in on a new browser signs out the previous one within about five minutes;
   • after 10 successful sign-ins to one account within an hour, further sign-ins are refused until the hour has passed; and
   • each account's activity is scored for signs of automated or shared use, such as several hundred pages in an hour, more than 100 companies or firms in a day, two sessions at the same time, or sign-ins from many networks or devices within a week. Harrity personnel are emailed about an account that scores high, with a summary of its recent activity, and they review it.

   These checks, and the free trial eligibility rules under "How we use information", are applied automatically. None of them disables or deletes an account: a person at Harrity decides that. Access also pauses automatically when a free trial ends or a renewal payment fails, until you subscribe or the payment succeeds. If you think an automatic decision has treated you wrongly, contact us and a person will review it.

5. 5. Cookies and browser storage

   We set three kinds of cookie that the service needs to work, and two kinds of analytics cookie described below the list:

   • sign-in cookies, which your browser keeps for up to 30 days. They keep you signed in until you sign out or stop using the service for 12 hours, or for up to 30 days if you tick "Stay signed in", and they protect the sign-in form against forged requests;
   • a remembered-browser cookie, which lasts 30 days and lets a browser skip the emailed code after you tick "Stay signed in" or confirm a free trial sign-up; and
   • a sign-up cookie, which lasts up to 55 minutes while you confirm your email address during free trial sign-up.

   We also keep preferences in your browser's local storage, such as your theme, recent searches, and the panels you have collapsed. They stay on your device. Those that could reveal your research, such as recent searches, are kept separately for each account, so the next person to sign in on a shared computer does not see them.

   For Harrity personnel, the PostHog analytics tool sets a cookie holding an identifier. For everyone else it stores nothing, sets no cookie and sends nothing to PostHog.

   Google Analytics sets cookies named _ga and _ga_ followed by an identifier, for every visitor, to tell a returning visitor from a new one. They last up to two years. You can block them in your browser, or install Google's Analytics opt-out browser add-on (tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout), and the service works as before. Google also uses the information it receives as described at policies.google.com/technologies/partner-sites.

   We use no advertising cookies, and we use Google Analytics to measure how the website is used, not for advertising. When you pay, you are sent to Stripe's checkout page, where Stripe sets its own cookies under its own privacy policy.

   In the search window, your browser fetches company logos directly from Clearbit (a HubSpot service) and, failing that, from Google. Those companies receive your IP address and the web address of the company whose logo is shown, under their own privacy policies.

   Some browsers send a "Do Not Track" signal. There is no agreed standard for responding to it, so the service does not change its behavior when it receives one. We do not track you across other websites, and apart from Google Analytics and the logo requests above, no third party receives information about what you do in Patent Atlas from your browser. We also do not sell personal information or share it for targeted advertising, so a Global Privacy Control signal has nothing to opt you out of.

   Blocking the sign-in cookies will prevent you from signing in.

6. 6. How we share information

   We do not sell personal information, and we do not share it for cross-context behavioral (targeted) advertising. We disclose it only in these cases:

   • To service providers that process it for us under contract: Amazon Web Services (hosting, our database, server logs, sign-in through Amazon Cognito, and email delivery); HubSpot (email about Patent Atlas: it receives your name, email address, organization, the IP address you signed up from, your trial end date, your subscription status, renewal date and billing cycle, and your survey answers, and it records whether you open its email and which links you click); Stripe (payment processing); Google (website analytics: the page addresses, referrers, device details and approximate location described under "Information we collect"); and PostHog (product analytics, for Harrity personnel only).
   • To Stripe, which also uses payment information for its own purposes, such as preventing fraud and meeting financial regulations, under its privacy policy at stripe.com/privacy.
   • To Clearbit and Google, which receive your IP address when your browser fetches a company logo in the search window, as described under "Cookies and browser storage".
   • To your organization, where your employer arranged or pays for your account, as needed to administer its subscription.
   • When the law requires it, or when it is necessary to protect the rights, property or safety of Harrity, our users or others.
   • To our professional advisers, such as auditors, insurers and outside counsel.
   • When you ask us to, or with your consent.
   • If Harrity sells, transfers or reorganizes Patent Atlas, to the buyer or other party, including during negotiations, subject to this policy.

   Within Harrity, account and activity records in the service can be seen only by Patent Atlas administrators, as described under "How we use information". Harrity staff who sell and market Patent Atlas see the HubSpot contact record described above.

   We may also share aggregated or de-identified information that does not identify you or your organization, as described under "How we use information".

7. 7. Patent data shown in the service

   Patent Atlas shows information from patent records published by patent offices, including the United States Patent and Trademark Office, which we obtain from the offices directly or through data providers. Those records name people involved in patents, such as inventors, applicants, examiners and patent practitioners. We did not collect that information from you.

   We use those names only to present patent analytics. If you are named in a record and have a question or an objection, contact us. We cannot change the official record, but we will review your request and, where we can, correct how Patent Atlas presents it.

8. 8. How long we keep information

   We keep personal information as follows:

   • Account details, saved work and settings: while your account is open. Deleting the account deletes them, except as listed below.
   • Sign-in, security and activity records, including our server logs: 90 days, then deleted automatically, except as part of a security alert.
   • A remembered browser: 30 days.
   • Security alerts emailed to our staff about an account, which include its recent activity, its networks and devices, and the companies and firms it viewed most: in Harrity's email system, under its records rules. A note that an account was flagged, for automated or shared use, and when, is kept while the account exists.
   • The record of a free trial sign-up (name, email address, organization, the company or law firm you chose, sign-up IP address and browser type, the terms you accepted, and the date the trial became a paid subscription, if it did): kept after the trial ends and after the account is deleted, for as long as we offer free trials, so that each email address gets one trial.
   • A sign-up whose email address is never confirmed: the account it created is deleted once the sign-up is more than 24 hours old, and the record of the attempt 90 days after it was made.
   • A sign-up we turned away, for example one from a personal or disposable email address or from an address that already has an account or a trial: the name, email address, organization, IP address and browser type given, and the reason, for 90 days.
   • The deletions in the last two items run automatically and can take place some time after the period ends.
   • Survey answers and the email address given with them: kept after the account is deleted, for as long as they help us improve the service. Ask us and we will delete yours.
   • Your contact record with HubSpot: until you ask us to delete it.
   • Google Analytics records: for the period set in our Google Analytics account, at most 14 months.
   • Your customer record at Stripe, including your billing details: deleting your Patent Atlas account does not delete it. Ask us and we will have it removed, apart from what Stripe must keep under financial law.
   • Invoices and payment records: in Stripe and in our accounting records, for as long as tax and accounting law requires.
   • Emails you send us: for as long as we need them to answer you and keep a record of the exchange.

   Deleted information can remain in our database backups for up to 35 days. We may keep information longer when the law requires it or when it is needed for a legal claim.

9. 9. Security

   We encrypt information in transit and at rest, limit access to the people who run the service, and use the sign-in checks described under "Automated security checks". No system is perfectly secure, and we cannot guarantee that information will never be accessed without authorization. If a breach affects your personal information, we will notify you as the law requires.

   A Patent Atlas account is for one person and may not be shared. Keep your password to yourself: you are responsible for what is done under your account. If you think someone else has used it, tell us at once using the details at the end of this policy.

10. 10. Your choices and rights

    You can change your name and other profile details in Settings. Your email address identifies your account, so we change it on request. To close your account and have its information deleted, contact us. You can stop email about Patent Atlas with the unsubscribe link in any such message; service messages about your account continue while it is open.

    Wherever you live, you can ask us for a copy of the personal information we hold about you, and ask us to correct it or delete it. We will do so unless the law allows or requires us to keep it, and we will tell you if that is the case. The sections below describe further rights under some state and national laws.

    To make a request, contact us using the details at the end of this policy. To protect your account, we will confirm the request with the email address on the account. Someone you authorize can make a request for you, with your signed permission. We answer within 45 days, or tell you within that time if we need up to 45 more. If we decline a request, you can appeal by replying to our answer, and we will respond to the appeal within 45 days. If we deny the appeal, you can contact your state attorney general. We will not treat you differently for exercising any of these rights.

11. 11. California and other US state privacy rights

    If you live in California or another US state with a consumer privacy law, you have the right, subject to exceptions in the law, to know what personal information we collect and how we use and disclose it, to get a copy of it, to have it corrected or deleted, and to opt out of its sale, of its use for targeted advertising, and of profiling that produces legal or similarly significant effects. We do none of those three things. Use the process under "Your choices and rights" to exercise these rights.

    In the last 12 months we collected the following categories of personal information, from you, your browser, your organization and Stripe, for the purposes under "How we use information". For each, here is who received it for a business purpose and how long we keep it (in full under "How long we keep information"). Amazon Web Services hosts the service and so holds every category.

    • Identifiers (name, email address, IP address, account ID, and the Google Analytics cookie identifier). Received by HubSpot (email about Patent Atlas) and Stripe (payments); your IP address and cookie identifier by Google (website analytics); and your IP address by Clearbit and Google when the search window loads a company logo. Google Analytics keeps its records at most 14 months. Name and email address are kept while your account is open, and after it closes in the free trial record, any survey answers, our HubSpot contact record and your Stripe customer record. IP addresses are kept 90 days, except the address recorded with a free trial sign-up or a survey answer.
    • Customer records (name, billing address, and the brand, last four digits and expiry date of your card). Received by Stripe. Kept by Stripe while you subscribe and afterwards as set out under "How long we keep information", and in our accounting records for as long as tax and accounting law requires.
    • Commercial information (plan, billing cycle, renewal date, invoices and payments). Received by Stripe, and by HubSpot except for invoices and payments. Kept for as long as tax and accounting law requires, and in HubSpot until you ask us to delete the contact record.
    • Internet or other electronic network activity (sign-in times, browser and device type, and the pages and companies and firms your account opened; for Harrity personnel, product analytics; the page addresses and referrers recorded by Google Analytics; and whether you open our email about Patent Atlas and which links you click). Received by Google (website analytics), by HubSpot (email opens and clicks), and by PostHog for Harrity personnel only. Kept 90 days, except the summary in a security alert email, which is kept with Harrity's email records, Google Analytics records, kept at most 14 months, and email opens and clicks, kept in HubSpot until you ask us to delete the contact record.
    • Geolocation data (an approximate location, not a precise one, that Google works out from your IP address). Received by Google (website analytics). Kept at most 14 months.
    • Professional or employment-related information (the company or law firm you work for). Received by HubSpot. Kept while your account is open, and afterwards in the free trial record and our HubSpot contact record.
    • Inferences (whether an account's activity looks automated or shared, and whether an email address is eligible for a free trial). Not disclosed. A note that an account was flagged, and when, is kept while the account exists, and the alert email with Harrity's email records. Eligibility is decided at sign-up. When we turn a sign-up away, the reason is kept with the record of that attempt for 90 days.
    • Sensitive personal information (your account login together with your password). Received by Amazon Cognito, which keeps your password until the account is deleted. We use it only to sign you in and keep your account secure, so the right to limit its use does not apply.

    We have not sold personal information or shared it for cross-context behavioral advertising in the last 12 months, and we do not knowingly sell or share the personal information of anyone under 16. We do not disclose personal information to third parties for their own direct marketing.

12. 12. If you are in the European Economic Area, the United Kingdom or Switzerland

    Where the GDPR, the UK GDPR or the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection applies, Harrity is the controller of your personal information, and we rely on these legal bases:

    • performance of our contract with you: your account, the service, billing and service messages;
    • our legitimate interests: providing the service where your employer holds the subscription, the automated security checks, the one-trial-per-address rule, improving the service, creating aggregated or de-identified information, emailing business contacts about Patent Atlas and Harrity's other analytics products where the law allows it without consent, presenting public patent records, and establishing or defending legal claims; and
    • legal obligation: tax and accounting records, and responses to lawful requests.

    You have the right to access your personal information, to have it corrected or erased, to restrict its use, to receive it in a portable format, and to object to any use based on our legitimate interests. You can object to email about Patent Atlas at any time, with the unsubscribe link or by contacting us, and we will stop. The automatic decisions described under "Automated security checks" do not produce legal or similarly significant effects, and you can ask a person to review any of them. You also have the right to complain to the data protection authority where you live or work.

    We are in the United States. When you use the service from another country, your information comes to us in the United States, and our service providers process it there under data processing terms that require them to protect it. Ask us for details of those terms. Data protection law in the United States may differ from the law where you live.

13. 13. Other websites

    Patent Atlas links to websites this policy does not cover, such as the USPTO fee schedule, our Terms and Conditions, and Stripe's checkout and billing pages. Their own privacy policies apply there.

14. 14. Children

    Patent Atlas is a professional tool for businesses and law firms. It is not directed to children, and we do not knowingly collect personal information from anyone under 18. If we learn that we have, we will delete it.

15. 15. Changes to this policy

    When we change this policy, we change the effective date at the top of this page. If a change is material, we will tell account holders by email or with a notice in the service. If you keep using Patent Atlas after the effective date, the updated policy applies to you.