Terms and conditions for use and delivery of the Virre Information Service
These terms and conditions explain the use of the Virre Information Service (“service") by the Finnish Patent and Registration Office (“PRH"), the purposes of use of the service, and any restrictions on its use. These general terms and conditions apply to all users and all products contained in the service. Users agree to be bound by these terms and conditions whenever using the service. Besides these terms and conditions, further terms and conditions may be applicable to certain sections of the service.
The user is any user of the Virre Information Service, regardless of if they are one-off clients, registered clients, or contract clients.
Virre Information Service
The service is maintained by the PRH, and it provides public information from the Finnish Trade Register, Register of Foundations and Register of Enterprise Mortgages. The service allows users to search and browse information transferred from the Trade Register, Register of Foundations and Register of Enterprise Mortgages, to buy extracts and certificates, and to run selections and statistics. Products bought at the service can be paid for online.
The range of items available can be viewed on the PRH website. At discretion, the PRH may make changes to the range of items, function of the service, and other content. The service may be inaccessible during maintenance and at other times. The PRH is not responsible for any costs incurred to the user by any changes or interruptions in the service.
The service is available in Finnish, Swedish and English.
Right of use
The service is primarily meant for searching for and checking individual details for users' own use. The users can be authorities, businesses, organisations and private persons. The user is not granted immaterial rights to the service, the information provided through it, and the data system implementing the service or any of its parts.
The PRH grants the user a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable and restricted right to access and use the service and its information material solely according to these terms and conditions, and to such extent as defined by the PRH for each specific service.
Users agree to use the service for private, non-commercial purposes only, and to comply with any relevant legislation, these terms and conditions, and fair dealing.
Users must particularly observe that the information retrieved from the service also may comprise personal data. Users have no right to process or forward personal data directly or indirectly in a way that is prohibited in data protection legislation or other legislation concerning protection of personal data. For clarity, it is stated that personal data may not be used for direct marketing. The disclosure of personal data included in the information material is a disclosure as referred to in the special legislation concerning the PRH, which is described in the applicable privacy statement of the PRH. Read more in the privacy statements of the registers.
The reception of data included in the service information may require a report on the purpose of use and a licence. Licence application forms are available at the PRH contact point.
Users and registration
It is possible to access the service without registration or user name.
It is also possible to register as a user. On registration, the user agrees to provide correct and full personal details. False information is not permitted. Registered users are given user names and passwords. Users are responsible for all use of the service with their user names and passwords, and agree to carefully keep them confidential, and to report any misuse to the PRH without delay.
If the user has violated the terms and conditions, the PRH can cancel the registration, or deny access to certain sections of the service. A registration can also be cancelled if the user has not logged in to the service for a period of six (6) months.
User details will neither be passed on to third parties nor be used for marketing. However, the PRH can use them for informing users of changes to the service.
Read the privacy statement for the customer register of Virre Information Service.
Fees
Users will have access to items and/or services subject to charges according to the service descriptions once these have been paid for, by using any of the payment options available.
The charges for this service are regulated by the Act on Fees Charged for the Services of the Finnish Patent and Registration Office (1032/1992), and by the currently applicable Decree of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment on the chargeable services of the Finnish Patent and Registration Office, issued under the above Act. The other information service fees are based on decisions taken by the PRH under the above Decree.
Restrictions of use
Pre-programmed searches, resale or commercial forwarding of information, and publication in networks or other media is not permitted, unless written permission is given by the PRH. Both web services available to anyone and those limited by user IDs are deemed to constitute networks.
Users have the right to store the service information they have retrieved and that can be stored. However, information retrieved from the service must not be stored in large volumes. Neither must the information nor the authorisation to use it be sold or forwarded to a third party. Forwarding of the information is permitted in conjunction with the user's own internal and conventional service, provided that its disclosure is not the main purpose of the service.
User's responsibility
Users are responsible for the use of their user names and passwords.
Users are responsible for the acquisition, maintenance, data security and functionality of their necessary facilities, software and online connection, and for data traffic to the operator's facilities.
Users are responsible for obeying the legislation and authority regulations concerning data protection as regards the equipment, data connections, software, files, and the information communicated in the service that have been entrusted to them.
The information must not be provided to a third party for marketing purposes. Any handling and disclosure of personal details possibly contained in the service information are governed by the Finnish Data Protection Act (1050/2018) and the Finnish Act on the Openness of Government Activities (621/1999).
Users agree to inform the PRH of any defect, error or malfunction in the service or in its parts.
Users are responsible for any damage caused to the service by their intentional or negligent acts.
Availability of service
Virre Client Support is available Monday–Friday 9.00–15.00. Except for some of its functions, the service can be accessed around the clock.
There may be interruptions in the service because of maintenance, updating or technical failure. The PRH will do its best to inform the clients of scheduled downtime in advance on the PRH website and in the service, but cannot guarantee that the service will be uninterrupted or free of faults; neither can interruptions and delays be deemed breaches of contract.
The PRH may change the content of its databases and files, its procedures and the service when it upgrades its activities, or when legislation, authority regulations, or staff agreements are amended.
The PRH may close its databases without liability for damage, if servicing and maintenance so require. The PRH will do its best to inform in advance of such scheduled downtime. At discretion, the PRH may also decide to discontinue the service or a part of it; if so, the discontinuation will be reported on the PRH website in advance.
Responsibility
The PRH is not liable to the user for any faults in the service or the databases, or for consequential or indirect damage arising from delays in the service. The service is provided ‘as is’ without guarantee of any kind.
The PRH is not liable for any possible damage, including situations where it may have to prevent the user from accessing the databases because of the action or negligence of the user, or if the use of the databases is prevented by force majeure beyond the control of the PRH.
Immaterial rights
The PRH reserves all proprietary rights, copyright and other immaterial rights to the content of the service, and to all items, software and other property offered or available through the service.
Changing terms and conditions
The PRH may change these terms and conditions. Clients will be informed about such changes on the PRH website or in the service.
Applicable law
Finnish legislation applies to these terms and conditions (excluding rules of conflict of laws which would lead to the application of a foreign law).