Consumer Research Experts for Litigation

When you are looking for consumer research experts for your IP litigation who have incomparable skills in survey design and execution, get in touch with Keegan & Donato Consulting for results that are both reliable and within your budget.

Keegan & Donato Consulting has developed surveys for plaintiffs and defendants across the nation on issues related to likelihood of confusion, strength of mark, secondary meaning, acquired distinctiveness, dilution, genericness, false advertising, and many other topics within the fields of trademark and trade dress.

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.

Each case is unique, and we collaborate with clients to understand the fundamental issues of their cases in order to maximize the value of the survey evidence to the overall case strategy.

The Importance of Hiring a Survey Expert

Good survey evidence can be powerful. However, consumer surveys typically are not 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.

Factors such as how a survey universe was defined; how respondents were selected; in what order survey questions were asked; whether the questions were ambiguous, leading or subjective; whether the survey data was properly analyzed and reported; and whether the survey expert was appropriately trained and qualified, help courts determine whether or not a survey was properly designed and well-executed.

For example, in Pinterest, Inc. v. Pintrips, Inc., Case No. 13-cv-04608-HSG, Dist. Court, N.D. California (2015), the plaintiff introduced two surveys to support its claim of consumer confusion over the defendant’s use of the word “pin.” The Court strongly disagreed, and determined that “fatal defects in the design of each survey render their results meaningless to the resolution of this lawsuit.”

The court assigned no weight to the results of one survey because it determined that issues with the survey design and interpretation compromised its results. The “survey design does not permit the Court to draw any inference about whether… any survey respondents would have associated the Pintrips website with Pinterest.”

The findings of the other survey were rejected on the basis that it was not “conducted with a pool of respondents drawn from the general public, and, accordingly, the Court cannot consider its findings as evidence that the general public was familiar with Pinterest’s marks.”

Mark Keegan and Tony Donato can help you and your client design and execute a methodologically sound survey that will withstand the rigors of litigation.

When you are evaluating consumer research experts for your litigation, consider a highly qualified survey consultancy firm like Keegan & Donato Consulting that offers vast experience in the full spectrum of trademark infringement matters. Get in touch with us today at (914) 967-9421 to find out how we can help you get the results you need.

Learn more about our services: