If you are a trademark attorney in Omaha who needs litigation support to help you develop a powerful case strategy, Keegan & Donato Consulting offers the expertise you need.

Keegan & Donato Consulting, a specialty research consultancy, is located in Rye, New York. We provide a complete suite of services, including consulting on litigation strategy for both plaintiff and defendant clients across the nation, consumer research studies, expert reports, testimony in trademark and trade-dress litigation, testimony at deposition and/or trial, and rebuttal of opposing parties’ surveys when applicable.

Principals Mark Keegan and Tony Donato offer more than 25 years of combined experience and education in consumer-based survey research and data analysis in the context of intellectual property disputes, and follow a solid methodological foundation in survey design, execution and presentation.

Why Survey Expertise Matters

Consumer research surveys are highly vulnerable to criticism, and courts take care to verify whether the survey design or methodology was flawed in any way. Issues surrounding the selection of sample, interviewer bias, or suggestive wording may cause a judge to discount all or part of a survey.

In Black & Decker Corp. v. Positec USA Inc., 1:11-cv-5426, Dist. Court, N.D. Illinois, Eastern Division (2017), for example, flawed survey evidence caused the Court to toss out an earlier trade dress infringement jury verdict and $53.9 million award in favor of the Plaintiff and order a new trial.

The Court concluded that the Plaintiff’s proffered likelihood of confusion survey had been “so informally designed and conducted that it fails key tests of professionalism and reliability” and should have been excluded from trial.

“Even if … the survey was not the sole evidence on likelihood of confusion in the trial record, it was the linchpin of Plaintiffs’ case on likelihood of confusion— an issue that was hotly contested at trial. Given that Plaintiffs presented no evidence that any consumers were actually confused about the origin of Defendants’ goods, there is a high probability that [the expert’s] flawed testimony unfairly influenced the jury’s verdict… and admission of the survey and [the expert’s] testimony about the survey was fundamentally unfair to Defendants.”

For reasons like this, it is crucial to employ survey experts, such as Keegan & Donato Consulting. Our methodologically sound consumer research studies and expert testimony will meet the courts’ standards for design, execution and analysis and can serve as powerful evidence in your case.

Our Survey Best Practices

Some of the industry best practices that Keegan & Donato Consulting builds into the firm’s survey designs include:

• Appropriate universe selection and sampling frame;
• Inclusion of representative, qualified respondents;
• Use of procedures to minimize potential biases in data collection;
• Use of objective, non-leading questions;
• Use of procedures to reduce guessing among respondents; and
• Full analysis and reporting of survey data.

We employ both classic survey designs as well as innovative custom survey designs developed to suit each client’s needs. Our industry-leading online survey software platform facilitates the programming and execution of advanced survey designs, including complex skip logic and advanced rotation and randomization of questions, answer options, and stimuli.

Attorneys whose litigation in Omaha requires the support and expertise of a trademark survey expert will benefit from the extraordinary knowledge of Keegan & Donato Consulting. Contact us at (914) 967-9421 to learn how we can help.