Data Protection

What Is Data Protection?

Data protection refers to data collection and information security laws and technologies that safeguard sensitive data from theft, corruption, or exposure. Data protection also concerns privacy and security legislation limiting the collection and processing of personal data, the global impact of this legislation, and an individual’s expectations of privacy on the Internet. Through effective prevention, detection, and responsiveness to data breaches, brands improve and maintain goodwill with consumers.

Our Position

Trademark protection and data protection are important pillars for consumer protection. With that in mind, we provide brand owners with valuable information on important aspects of data protection regulations worldwide that may affect trademark practice. Our policy development is ongoing. To date, we’ve provided input to governmental and nongovernmental entities on topics such as:

• Privacy vs. security: Brands and practitioners are challenged to simultaneously develop both privacy and security best practices. These practices, in turn, provide consumers with assurances of trust, privacy, and safety, while providing brands with trademark rights protection and enforcement mechanisms that require transparency and access to private information. Because these two practices often conflict, we prefer the term “data protection” to encompass both “privacy concerns” and brands’ “security concerns.”
• Harmonization: We recommend a comprehensive and uniform approach, while respecting differences between jurisdictions and supporting proportionate privacy legislation that takes into account variations in company size and investment capacity.

Accountability and enforcement: We recommend that once data protection regulations are mature, penalties for violations must be available and imposed in order to promote continued engagement and improvement of data protection regulations and practices.