Keegan & Donato Consulting is a specialty research consultancy and one of the most experienced companies in the field of trademark litigation. Proving or disproving infringement in support of your case is our primary focus.
Keegan & Donato Consulting specializes in trademark and trade dress analyses and surveys. We have designed and critiqued hundreds of consumer research studies across various industries for cases in federal court, state court, the TTAB, the NAD, arbitration hearings, and other specialty venues.
We have worked with leading firms across the nation, including Notaro, Michalos & Zaccaria PC (New Jersey), Blood Hurst & O’Reardon LLP (San Diego), SmithAmundsen LLC (Chicago), and Ropes & Gray LLP (Washington, DC), on surveys accepted as evidence in litigation involving a broad range of products and services.
Do You Need a Survey Expert?
Surveys are highly susceptible to criticism. You can expect the court to examine them for methodological flaws. Universe selection issues, interviewer bias, and suggestive wording may cause a judge to give a survey little weight or deem part or all of the results inadmissible.
Consider for example Malletier v. Dooney & Bourke, Inc., 525 F.Supp.2d 558, 569-70 – Dist. Court S.D. New York (2007). The court excluded the evidence and testimony of all three of the plaintiff’s survey experts and two of the defendant’s three experts because it determined them to be unreliable and plagued by significant methodological flaws. The court concluded that “any probative value was substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice and misleading the jury.”
To avoid this critical pitfall and ensure that your survey can withstand the rigors of litigation, hire qualified survey experts like Keegan & Donato Consulting.
Our Survey Best Practices
At Keegan & Donato Consulting, we employ both classic survey designs and innovative custom designs to suit each client’s unique needs. Our best practices include:
- Rigorous and valid survey design that probes the relevant issues in the case;
- Inclusion of representative, qualified respondents;
- Properly defined universe selection and sampling frame;
- Use of straightforward, precise, non-leading questions;
- Use of methods that reduce guessing among respondents; and
- Use of procedures to minimize potential biases in data collection;
- Complete analysis and reporting of the data gathered.
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.
We obtain our survey sample from leading marketing research companies that maintain multi-million-member online consumer panels. These companies are top providers of survey sample in the U.S. and are used by prominent marketing research firms.
Each case is unique, and we collaborate with clients to understand the fundamental issues of their cases to maximize the value of the survey evidence to the overall case strategy.
Next Steps
To learn more about proving trademark infringement with surveys and whether such a research study could strengthen your case, get in touch with Keegan & Donato Consulting at (914) 967-9421.