Patai

Privacy Policy

Last updated: September 2026

1. Introduction and Controller

The protection of your privacy and the security of your invention data are our highest priority. This Privacy Policy informs you how Patai GmbH collects and processes personal data, in particular taking into account the Swiss Federal Act on Data Protection (FADP) and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Controller: Patai GmbH, Allmendstrasse 98, 8041 Zürich. E-mail: support@patai.ch

Represented by: Markus Spree (CEO)

This Policy applies to our website (patai.legal) and to the platform (app.patai.legal).

2. Collection and Purpose of Data Processing

We collect data in order to enable the brokering between inventors and patent attorneys and to ensure the technical operation of the platform.

2.1. For Inventors (Users)

  • Master data: First name, last name, e-mail address, telephone number, country and whether you act as an individual or as a company. Optional: technical field and stage of development of your invention.
  • Content data: Information on the invention (invention disclosures), uploaded documents and sketches, conversation histories with the AI assistant and chat histories with patent attorneys.
  • Purpose: Provision of the platform, brokering to patent attorneys, quality assurance, AI-assisted support in preparing the invention disclosure.

2.2. For Patent Attorneys (Experts)

  • Master data: First name, last name, e-mail address, date of birth, telephone number, law firm and law firm address.
  • Profession-related information: Link to a public register (mandatory), technical fields, primary technical field, languages, professional experience, optionally website, LinkedIn profile, information on qualifications and on a degree in IP management.
  • Usage data: Assigned invention disclosures, feedback submitted, response times and brokering rate. These key figures are visible exclusively to Patai and serve the purpose of assignment.
  • Internal notes: Patai may keep an internal note on an attorney (e.g. the result of the register check). This is visible only to Patai's own staff.
  • Purpose: Verification of the information, assignment of suitable invention disclosures, billing.

2.3. Information You Provide Voluntarily

Optional fields are marked as such. Mandatory fields are marked with an asterisk in the form.

3. Technical Infrastructure and Third-Party Providers

We use specialised service providers. Wherever possible, we have switched to processing within the EU.

3.1. Hosting, Framework and Database

  • Framework & hosting: The application is based on Next.js (React) and is operated via Vercel (Vercel Inc., USA). Execution takes place in the Dublin (Ireland) region.
  • Backend & database: We use Convex (Convex, Inc., USA) as Backend-as-a-Service. Your data – invention disclosures, documents, chats, accounts – is located in the Europe (Ireland) region.
  • Authentication: Registration and sign-in take place via Clerk (Clerk Reports, Inc., USA). Clerk stores name, e-mail address and password; Patai itself does not store any passwords.

3.2. AI Functions

  • The AI assistant that guides you through the invention disclosure and the automatic evaluation of uploaded documents use language models from Anthropic (Claude). We obtain these models via Amazon Bedrock (Amazon Web Services EMEA SARL, Luxembourg). Processing takes place exclusively in data centres within the EU; your content is not transferred to Anthropic in the USA.
  • In the process, the content you enter and the text content of uploaded documents are processed. It is not used to train models.

3.3. Communication

  • Transactional e-mails (e.g. notification of new feedback) are sent via Resend (Resend Labs Inc., USA).
  • Newsletter and marketing communication: MailerLite (Ireland).

3.4. Payment Processing

All payments are processed via Stripe (Stripe Inc. / Stripe Payments Europe Ltd.). Patai itself does not store any credit card data. For subscriptions and credits, we store only the Stripe customer number, the status and purchase and consumption transactions.

4. Data Access and Disclosure

4.1. Patent Attorneys

Invention disclosures are passed on only to patent attorneys to whom Patai expressly assigns them. Before assignment, attorneys do not see any invention disclosure.

Disclosure takes place in two stages:

  1. Reduced view: Title, technical field and the problem statement – so that the attorney can check for a conflict of interest.
  2. Full view: only after the attorney has confirmed that no conflict of interest exists and that they observe their professional obligations.

For each invention disclosure, Patai accepts a maximum of three feedbacks.

4.2. Access by Management (Administrative Access)

We expressly point out that invention disclosures, documents and chat histories are held in plain text on the platform's servers. For technical troubleshooting, quality assurance and compliance with legal requirements, the management of Patai GmbH may view this data. There is no end-to-end encryption that would technically exclude access by the Platform Operator.

Administrative access is tied to an expressly granted role; new accounts never receive it automatically.

4.3. Where Your Data Is Located

Invention data remains in the EU. All data relating to your invention – invention disclosures including the technical description, uploaded documents and sketches, conversation histories with the AI assistant and chats with patent attorneys – is stored and processed exclusively on servers in the EU: stored at Convex in Ireland, processed by the application at Vercel in Dublin and by the AI functions via Amazon Bedrock in the EU. It is not stored in the USA.

Transfer to the USA (third countries). Some services that do not receive a technical description of your invention process data partly in the USA:

  • Sign-in (Clerk): name, e-mail address and password.
  • E-mail dispatch (Resend): name and e-mail address of the recipient and the content of the respective notification. This contains the title of the invention disclosure and, where applicable, a short message from the Patai team, but no technical description of the invention.
  • Payment processing (Stripe): payment and invoice data.
  • Website contact form (Notion Labs, Inc., USA): name, e-mail address and your message.

These transfers are safeguarded by the Swiss-U.S. or EU-U.S. Data Privacy Framework respectively, or by Standard Contractual Clauses of the European Commission.

5. Analytics Tools

On our public website, we use audience measurement. Within the signed-in platform, no tracking by analytics services takes place.

6. Data Security

  • Transmission takes place exclusively in encrypted form (TLS).
  • Documents are delivered only to signed-in, authorised persons; each retrieval is checked individually.
  • Access to invention disclosures is tied to the role and the specific assignment.
  • The number of AI requests and file uploads per account and day is limited.

7. Retention Period and Deletion

  • Account data: If you delete your account, your personal master data (name, e-mail, telephone, address and other profile information) is deleted or anonymised without delay. Your account then appears on the platform as "no longer exists".
  • Content data: Invention disclosures, feedback submitted and chat histories are retained insofar as they are required for the handling of ongoing brokering processes or concern the rights of third parties – in particular because feedback and chat histories also belong to the respective other party. On request, we will also delete this content, provided that no statutory retention obligations preclude this.
  • Billing data: We retain payment and accounting data in accordance with the statutory retention periods (as a rule, ten years).

8. Your Rights

You have the right to access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing and data portability. As we store in plain text, we can provide you with a copy of your data on request. To do so, please contact support@patai.ch.

9. Changes

This Policy is adapted in the event of technical changes – for example, a change of AI provider or storage location. The version published on patai.legal at the relevant time is authoritative.