To defend your brand or organization in trademark litigation in New Orleans or elsewhere in the nation, it is important to hire a consumer survey expert like Keegan & Donato Consulting to help you achieve results that are both reliable and within your budget.
Keegan & Donato Consulting is a specialty research consultancy and one of the most experienced companies in the field of trademark litigation. With more than 25 years of combined experience, proven survey methodologies, and deep operational insight, principals Mark Keegan and Tony Donato provide expert research, expert reports, and testimony on behalf of plaintiffs and defendants in support of trademark infringement litigation.
The Importance of Hiring an Expert
Good survey evidence can be powerful. However, consumer surveys are not typically accepted without challenge. Courts demand accurate, real-world data, and design flaws can result in partial or full exclusion of survey evidence from a case.
Those design flaws may include asking leading, suggestive or ambiguous questions, under-inclusive or over-inclusive sampling of the consumer universe, sampling from the wrong geographic area and so on – flaws that can reduce or destroy the credibility of the survey.
In Water Pik, Inc. v. Med-Systems, Inc., 726 F.3d 1142, 1144-50 (10th Cir. 2013), for example, there is a lengthy discussion about why the Court determined that survey evidence submitted by the defendant in this trademark infringement and unfair competition case, “had too many methodological flaws to be of any probative value.”
Our Survey Methodology
Keegan & Donato Consulting designs, executes and analyzes consumer surveys that will withstand the rigors of litigation. They consist of objective, non-leading questions directed to an appropriate universe of consumers. We have strict procedures in place to minimize biases in data collection, and our services include a complete analysis and reporting of survey data.
Our surveys have been admitted into evidence in federal and state courts, at arbitration, and to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), the NAD, and other specialty venues. We have also testified extensively at deposition and at trial.
We specialize in these and many other topics within the fields of trademark and trade dress:
- Likelihood of Confusion– Our firm has designed and critiqued hundreds of likelihood of confusion studies to ascertain whether consumers are confused by a party’s use of a contested mark.
- Strength of Mark–Distinctive marks are protected, and the levels of legal protection are directly linked to the strength of the mark. We can help you understand the extent to which consumers are familiar with your client’s brand.
- Secondary Meaning – We can design a survey to target relevant consumers in your client’s market and determine the extent to which they associate a contested mark with a single or multiple sources.
- Acquired Distinctiveness– Consumer surveys can help determine whether consumers associate a mark with a certain product and whether the mark is distinctive enough not to cause confusion about the origin of goods or services associated with it.
- Lanham Act Claims– A well-designed consumer research study can provide empirical evidence on the issue of whether an alleged trademark infringement is having a real-world effect on consumers.
Get in touch with the experts at Keegan & Donato Consulting at (914) 967-9421 to learn how a trademark survey could help bolster your New Orleans case. We will work within your budget to deliver the survey evidence you need.