Litigation support from Keegan & Donato Consulting can help trademark attorneys in New Orleans and across the nation develop powerful evidence to support their cases.
Keegan & Donato Consulting provides service to attorneys practicing in federal and state courts, before arbitration panels, the TTAB, the NAD, and other specialty venues. Principals Mark Keegan and Tony Donato offer clients more than 25 combined years of proven survey methodologies, deep operational insight and broad industry experience.
We provide expert research, analysis, affidavits and reports on behalf of plaintiffs and defendants in support of trademark infringement litigation, and have collaborated extensively on cases involving business, marketing, and financial issues.
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.
Survey Flaws Can Damage Your Case
While survey evidence is not required in order to prevail on a claim of trademark infringement, courts often give such evidence substantial weight when they are well-designed and scientifically sound.
An overly broad survey that fails to address the key issues in a case, asks leading, suggestive or ambiguous questions, samples from the wrong geographic area, etc., may be deemed inadmissible or given little weight, even if based on an accepted standard methodology.
For example, 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.”
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.”
Hiring qualified survey experts, such as Keegan & Donato Consulting, will have a significant impact on whether the court deems your survey results admissible. We consider methodological design among the most important aspects of designing a consumer research study.
We have partnered with leading firms across the nation, including Notaro, Michalos & Zaccaria PC (New Jersey), Ropes & Gray LLP (Washington, DC), Blood Hurst & O’Reardon LLP (San Diego), and SmithAmundsen LLC (Chicago), on litigation surveys that have been accepted as evidence in matters involving a broad range of products and services.
If you are a trademark attorney who needs litigation support in New Orleans, take advantage of the extraordinary expertise of Keegan & Donato Consulting. Call us at (914) 967-9421 to find out how we can help. We can deliver intelligence quickly and within a wide range of budgets.