When you are seeking a consulting firm specializing in trademark surveys, consider Keegan & Donato Consulting. We design and execute surveys that will withstand the rigors of your trademark litigation.
Keegan & Donato Consulting is a specialty research consultancy and one of the most experienced firms in the field of trademark litigation. Principals Mark Keegan and Tony Donato offer clients more than 25 years of combined experience and impeccable credentials in consumer-based survey research and data analysis, and follow a solid methodological foundation in survey design, execution and presentation.
Mr. Keegan and Mr. Donato have substantial testimony experience as expert witnesses in a number of high-profile cases involving consumer behavior and trademark infringement. We have worked as experts on behalf of plaintiffs and defendants, in support of their litigation in state and federal courts, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), the NAB, at arbitration, and at other specialty venues.
What We Do for Our Valued Clients
- Design, execute and present results of:
- trademark litigation surveys, including likelihood of confusion, secondary meaning, strength of mark, trade dress, 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.
Flawed Surveys Can Damage Your Case
Consumer surveys can play an important role in proving likelihood of confusion, secondary meaning, strength of mark, acquired distinctiveness, consumer perception and other issues, when other scientific evidence is simply not available.
Consumer research surveys are highly vulnerable to criticism, however, and courts are careful to scrutinize them for methodological flaws. Issues of sample selection, interviewer bias, or suggestive wording may cause a judge to give a survey little weight, or deem some or all of the results inadmissible.
In Water Pik, Inc. v. Med-Systems, Inc., 726 F.3d 1142, 1144-50 (10th Cir. 2013), for example, there is a lengthy discussion wherein the Court concluded that the defendant’s survey evidence “had too many methodological flaws to be of any probative value.”
And 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” [see 45 F.Supp.3d 1167-1170].
Keegan & Donato Consulting has been engaged by leading IP litigation firms across the nation, such as Day Pitney LLP in New York City, Giampolo Law Group in Philadelphia, Girard Gibbs LLP in San Francisco, and Arent Fox in Washington, DC, to help them navigate the trademark infringement cases their clients face.
A consulting firm specializing in trademark surveys, such as Keegan & Donato Consulting, can help ensure that the evidence you introduce in your case will hold up to scrutiny from courts and opposing experts. Contact us today at (914) 967-9421 to take advantage of our extensive knowledge and experience.