If you are an NYC trademark attorney seeking litigation support in the form of consumer research, trademark surveys, analysis, affidavits, declarations and expert reports, Keegan & Donato Consulting can help.
About Keegan & Donato Consulting
Keegan & Donato Consulting is a specialty research consultancy and one of the most experienced companies in the field of trademark litigation. Mark Keegan and Tony Donato offer more than 25 years of experience and a combination of strategic and analytical skills.
Mr. Keegan is licensed to practice law in New York and Connecticut and is an AMA-designated Professional Certified Marketer. He has spent decades formulating case strategies in complex litigation matters and has consulted on a wide range of issues, from marketing and international business to consumer research for Lanham Act claims.
Mr. Donato received a Master of Public Policy from Georgetown University and has served as a consultant in complex litigation matters since 2004. He has a strong analytical background in marketing, intellectual property, and consumer behavior cases covering consumer surveys, trademark, copyright, best efforts, advertising, business damages, and business marketing ethics.
We have partnered with leading New York firms, including Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein LLP, Day Pitney LLP, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, and Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, on litigation surveys that have been accepted as evidence in matters involving a broad range of products and services.
Value of Litigation Surveys
Survey evidence can provide important information about how consumers perceive marks, product designs, colors, websites, and other stimuli.
Keegan & Donato Consulting specializes in a wide range of trademark and trade-dress analyses and surveys, including:
- Likelihood of Confusion
- Strength of Mark
- Secondary Meaning
- Dilution
- Acquired Distinctiveness
- Consumer Perception
- Lanham Act Claims
- Survey Critiques and Rebuttals
We also conduct consumer research studies that can examine whether particular marketing claims influence consumer demand for a product, how marketing communications impact consumer likelihood of purchase, and the relationship between marketing communications and the consumer’s willingness to pay a premium for a product.
Why Hire an Expert?
Trial judges closely scrutinize all proffered expert testimony. An overly broad survey that fails to address the key issues in a case, samples from the wrong geographic area, asks leading, suggestive or ambiguous questions, etc., even if based on an accepted standard methodology, may be deemed by the court to be of limited value and given little or no weight.
For example, in Water Pik, Inc. v. Med-Systems, Inc., 726 F.3d 1142, 1144-50 (10th Cir. 2013), there is a lengthy discussion about the Court’s conclusion that the defendant’s survey evidence “had too many methodological flaws to be of any probative value.”
In Elliott v. Google, Inc., 45 F. Supp. 3d 1156 – Dist. Court, D. Arizona (2014), the plaintiff’s surveys were deemed inadmissible because the Court determined them to be unscientific and poorly constructed. The survey expert was also rejected as unqualified “to design a survey or to interpret survey results.”
Trademark attorneys in NYC and across the nation who need a marketing research survey, trademark survey, or another type of litigation support will appreciate the extraordinary expertise of a company such as Keegan & Donato Consulting. Get in touch with us at (914) 967-9421 to find out more about our capabilities.