Privacy Statement – Agent

COLLECTION

Personal Information

The term “personal information” means information about an identifiable individual that is recorded in any form, as defined in the Privacy Act. The personal information we may collect from you includes, for example:

• Name
• Address
• Contact details: email address, fax, and telephone numbers
• Financial information such as debts, bank account, credit card details and results of bankruptcy checks
• Occupation, employment and position, qualifications, work experience, professional memberships, referee reports, employment history and academic record
• Disciplinary records of Agents – including conduct
• Canadian residency status
• Information related to your medical history or other health-related information, if required to assess your fitness to practice
• Criminal convictions and intelligence, including security assessments
• Medical history or other health-related information

Except for certain personal information from Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO) collected for the purpose of establishing the Registers outlined below, or in connection with investigations described below, the College does not gather any personal information about you unless you supply it directly. Situations where you would supply us with personal information include contact information contained in your personal files maintained by the reports, and information about continuing professional development and pro bono activities as they are mandated by the College. When we ask you for your personal information, we will provide you with a privacy notice linking to this statement where we describe the purpose for collecting your personal information, our authority to do so, and how you may ask questions.

The College only collects personal information about you that is directly related to and is demonstrably necessary for operating a program, or activity of the College (i.e., a law, regulation, bylaw or policy authorizes or requires us to collect it).

Licencing and Renewal

Personal information is collected by the College from licensees, at all stages of their licensure, and from Foreign Practitioners.

Under authority of the CPATA Act, Regulations and College and Board by-laws, any individual who applies to be a Class 3 Licensee must provide a range of information, including residence, letters of references, records of any disciplinary sanctions by an academic institution or professional or non-professional body, records of bankruptcy or insolvency, and any other information necessary for the Registrar to determine whether the Agent is of good character and fit to practice. This personal information must be made available by an applicant before it can be considered by the Registrar.

A Class 3 Licensee who applies to become a Class 1 Licensee must remain a Canadian resident, be of good character and fit to practice and must provide in support, letters of reference from their supervisor or others with whom they worked.

A standard criminal background check is a mandatory part of the licence requirements assessment. This is conducted through accessing personal information on an applicant from the RCMP National Repository of Criminal Records or local police. If an applicant is found to have a criminal record, further personal information will be collected on the nature of the offense(s) to determine if it will impact their fitness to practice. 

Requesting a Name Change

If you wish to change your first or last name with the College, you are required to submit documentation demonstrating the legal nature of the change. This could include providing a copy of your name change certificate from a provincial/territorial vital statistics department, and a court order issued under an Act, or an existing court order issued under an Act on change of name. 

If your name change is not as a result of a legal process, please contact the College, as name change requests may be approved on a case-by-case basis.

Investigations

If you are being investigated for professional misconduct or incompetence, personal information, required for the investigation, may be collected by an Investigator assigned by the Investigations Committee. This personal information will, in most cases, be collected with your knowledge and cooperation.

If an Agent is unwilling to cooperate and share relevant personal information with the Investigator, the College may compel the production of certain documents, including personal information,  to assist in the investigation.

Only employees directly involved in the complaints investigation process have access to personal information about an Agent under investigation.

Data Migration from the Canadian Intellectual Property Office (CIPO)

In the ‘coming into force’ process of the College, the personal information of any Agent whose name was on the Register of Patent Agents, or the list of Trademark Agents was transferred to the College. This information included information from the date of a person’s initial registration with CIPO and six years of historical data related to former Agents. This personal information was collected to communicate with Agents, and for the ongoing regulation of the Agents by the College (such as allowing current Agents to renew their licences) to allow the College to perform its Regulatory duties and functions under the CPATA Act.