When you are weighing the benefits of consumer surveys for your trademark infringement cases, consider Keegan & Donato Consulting. We have the qualifications and expertise necessary to quickly deliver intelligence within a wide range of budgets.
Keegan & Donato Consulting is a specialty research consultancy. With more than 25 combined years of experience conducting and critiquing consumer survey research, we have the ability to design studies that avoid the methodological pitfalls that so often afflict competing research studies.
What We Do for Our Valued Clients
- Design, execute and present results of:
- trademark litigation surveys, including likelihood of confusion, secondary meaning, trade dress, strength of mark, genericness, fame, and others;
- false and deceptive advertising, consumer perception, and other types of marketing surveys;
- Critique and rebuttal of trademark and marketing surveys;
- Damages and forensic economic analyses;
- Expert witness testimony on consumer survey, marketing and economic issues.
Can a Survey Help Your Case?
A well-designed survey can provide direct scientific evidence of the extent to which consumers believe there is a relationship between the plaintiff’s and the defendant’s mark, brand, or product.
Although good survey evidence can be powerful, consumer surveys are not typically accepted without challenge. Courts require accurate, real-world data, and poor designs and methodological flaws can result in partial or full exclusion of survey evidence from a case.
In Parks, LLC v. Tyson Foods, Inc., 2015 WL 4545408, No. 5:15–cv–00946 (E.D. PA. May 10, 2016), for example, plaintiff Parks claimed that the defendant’s “Park’s Finest” sausages and hot dogs infringed on its “Ball Park Franks” brand.
The Court criticized methodological flaws in a consumer survey submitted by Parks. It “was not probative of secondary meaning” and “was not directed at the appropriate universe of consumers.” Tyson Foods, on the other hand, introduced a consumer survey that showed little evidence of consumer confusion between its Park’s Finest sausages and Parks brand sausages. Tyson Foods prevailed.
If you think you may not need a survey for your trademark litigation, consider that a number of court decisions have drawn negative inferences from the absence of survey evidence.
For example, in Pharmacia Corp. v. Alcon Labs, Inc., 201 F.Supp. 2d 335, 373 (D.N.J. 2002), the court noted that, “Pharmacia is not legally required to conduct a confusion survey. But … such a failure, particularly when the trademark owner is financially able, justifies an inference that the plaintiff believes the results of the survey will be unfavorable.”
Are consumer surveys worth the cost? Learn more about the their benefits in trademark infringement cases from the experts at Keegan & Donato Consulting. Get in touch with us at (914) 967-9421 to take advantage of our training and data-gathering capabilities. We work on a fixed rate or hourly basis depending on the needs of each client, and will help you design a reliable, methodologically sound consumer study.