This notice explains what personal data BrandKavach collects, how we use it, who helps us process it, how long we keep it, and the choices and rights you have. We wrote it with India's Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (the "DPDP Act") in mind.
In short
- Our free brand check, calculators, class finder and similarity checker run in your browser. What you type into them is not sent to us.
- If you sign up for a watch, we collect what we need to run it: your email address, the brand names and classes you want watched, any trademark application numbers you give us, your plan and language choice, and your consent.
- Razorpay handles card and online payments. We never receive your full card number, CVV, net-banking password or UPI PIN.
- We do not use advertising or tracking cookies, and we do not sell your personal data or share it for advertising.
- You can ask us to show, correct or delete your data, or withdraw your consent, by writing to the email address on our About page.
Who we are
BrandKavach is an independent trademark-watch service run from Bengaluru, India. In this notice "BrandKavach", "we" and "us" mean the service and the people who run it. For the DPDP Act we are the "Data Fiduciary": we decide why and how your personal data is processed. BrandKavach is not affiliated with the Office of the Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trade Marks (IP India).
What we collect and why
| What | When we get it | Why we use it |
|---|---|---|
| Email address | Watch signup, payments, emails you send us | To send your alerts, reports, payment links and service notices, and to reply to you |
| Brand names, classes and trademark application numbers | Watch signup, or when you write to us | To compare your brands with newly published marks and to show estimated opposition deadlines |
| Plan, language preference and the time you gave consent | Watch signup | To provide the plan you chose in your language, and to keep a record of your consent |
| Payment details that Razorpay shares with us (for example amount, date, payment reference, the name, email and phone number you give Razorpay, the payment method and, for some methods, the last digits of a card or the UPI ID used) | When you pay | To match payments to your watch, issue receipts, handle refunds and keep the accounts the law requires |
| If you pay us directly by UPI instead: your name and UPI ID as your bank app shows them to us, with the amount and reference | When you pay by UPI | The same payment purposes as above |
| What you write to us | When you email us | To answer you and improve the service |
| Technical data such as IP address, browser type and the pages or files requested | When you visit the site | To deliver and secure the website (handled by Cloudflare) and, if enabled, to count visits without cookies |
Please give us only what the form asks for. Do not send us identity documents, bank details or other sensitive information.
Public trademark data
Our alerts use information published by the Trade Marks Registry in the Trade Marks Journal, such as marks, application numbers, classes and dates, and sometimes the names and addresses of applicants. The Registry publishes this information under the Trade Marks Act, 1999. We use only what we need to tell you about a mark that may conflict with yours.
Our free tools and free brand check
The opposition deadline calculator, renewal date calculator, class finder, similarity checker and the free brand check work inside your browser. The brand names and dates you type are processed on your device and are not sent to us.
To run the brand check, your browser downloads parts of our public index of recently published marks, in the same way it downloads any web page. Our host, Cloudflare, sees those file requests. A request can show which part of the index was downloaded, but not what you typed. If a tool remembers a setting, it stores it in your own browser and does not send it to us.
Cookies and analytics
We do not use advertising or tracking cookies. We may use Cloudflare Web Analytics to count page views and see which pages are useful. Cloudflare says this product does not use cookies or local storage to track you and does not follow you across other websites. We do not combine analytics with the details you give us in a signup.
The legal basis for using your data
We process your personal data:
- with your consent, which you give when you sign up for a watch or write to us and which you can withdraw at any time; and
- where the law allows us to without consent, for example to keep payment and tax records or to respond to a lawful request from an authority.
Who processes data for us
We use a small number of service providers to run BrandKavach. They may only use your data to provide their service to us, or as their own terms and the law allow.
| Provider | What they do for us |
|---|---|
| Google (Google Forms and Google Sheets) | Receive watch signups and store our list of watched brands. When you submit the watch form, your browser sends it directly to Google, so Google also receives technical data such as your IP address, under Google's own privacy policy. |
| Cloudflare | Hosts and protects this website and, if enabled, provides cookieless Cloudflare Web Analytics. |
| Razorpay | Processes payments made through Razorpay Payment Pages, under its own terms and privacy policy. |
| Our email service provider | Sends alerts, reports and replies, and stores email we send and receive. |
We also process watch details on the computer we use to run our weekly matching, and we keep that computer and our accounts protected.
Some of these providers store or process data outside India. We send data abroad only as the DPDP Act allows.
We do not sell your personal data. We may disclose it if the law requires us to, to protect our rights or users against fraud or misuse, or to someone who takes over BrandKavach. If BrandKavach is taken over, the new operator must protect your data as this notice describes, and we will tell you before your data is handled under a different notice.
How long we keep your data
| Data | How long |
|---|---|
| Watch details (email, brands, classes, application numbers, preferences) | While your watch is active. After you cancel, we delete them within 90 days. |
| Signups that never become a paid watch | Deleted within 6 months of your last contact with us. |
| Alert reports we have sent you | Deleted with your watch details, except copies kept in our sent email until that email is deleted (within 24 months). |
| Emails you send us | Up to 24 months after the conversation ends. |
| Payment and invoice records | As long as tax and accounting laws require. |
| Consent records | As long as we hold your data, plus the period we may need to show that you consented. |
If you ask us to delete your data, we will do so unless we have to keep some of it to meet a legal obligation. In that case we keep only that part and only for as long as required.
How we protect your data
We use reasonable safeguards for a service of our size. Access to your data is limited to the people who run BrandKavach and to the providers listed above. No method of storing or sending data is completely secure. If a personal data breach affects you, we will tell you and the Data Protection Board of India as the law requires.
Your rights
Under the DPDP Act you can ask us to:
- give you a summary of the personal data we hold about you, what we do with it, and who we have shared it with;
- correct, complete or update your data;
- erase your data when it is no longer needed for the purpose you gave it for, or when you withdraw consent;
- withdraw your consent at any time. This is as easy as giving it: write to us. Withdrawing consent stops future processing and ends your watch; it does not undo processing already done;
- nominate another person to exercise your rights if you die or cannot act yourself; and
- resolve a grievance about how we handle your data.
To use any of these rights, email us at the address on our About page from the email address you signed up with, or tell us how else we can confirm it is you. We will reply within 30 days. If we need more time, we will tell you why. If you are not satisfied with our response, you can complain to the Data Protection Board of India in the manner the law allows.
We offer these rights now, even though some parts of the DPDP Act and its rules take effect later.
Children
BrandKavach is for adults running brands or advising brand owners. It is not meant for anyone under 18, and we do not knowingly collect personal data from children. If you believe a child has given us personal data, write to us and we will delete it.
Grievance and contact
For questions, requests or complaints about privacy, email the address shown on our About page, with "Privacy" in the subject line. That address reaches the person responsible for handling privacy grievances at BrandKavach.
Changes to this notice
We will update this notice when our practices or the law change, and we will change the "updated" date above. If a change materially affects how we use the data of people with an active watch, we will email them before it takes effect.