If you are seeking highly qualified experts in likelihood of confusion surveys to help you develop a powerful strategy for your trademark litigation, look no further than Keegan & Donato Consulting.
Keegan & Donato Consulting provides a complete suite of services, including consulting on litigation strategy for both plaintiff and defendant clients, 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.
The firm designs, executes, analyzes, and presents the results of IP litigation surveys, including:
- Likelihood of Confusion
- Secondary Meaning
- Strength of Mark
- Acquired Distinctiveness
- Lanham Act Claims
Expert Witness Testimony
If you need an expert when the facts and issues of your case are not easily understood, or when a court would benefit from empirical evidence related to relevant issues in the case, Mr. Keegan and Mr. Donato have testimony experience as expert witnesses in a number of high-profile cases involving consumer behavior and trademark infringement.
Why Seek the Advice of Survey Experts?
Expert advice can be critical for several reasons, such as in making the most of fact discovery, framing discovery requests, and identifying issues to investigate in depositions.
Primarily through survey evidence, an expert can help establish whether a descriptive mark has acquired secondary meaning; whether competing marks are likely to confuse consumers; whether or not a mark is famous; and whether one brand’s mark is likely to cause dilution to a competing mark.
While nothing in the Lanham Act requires consumer surveys to be introduced in disputes, they can serve as persuasive evidence of whether an advertisement or trademark is likely to cause consumers to be confused or misled. Consumer surveys must be well-designed and scientifically sound, however, or they may be given little weight by the court or partially or completed excluded.
For example, in Elliott v. Google, Inc., 45 F. Supp. 3d 1156 – Dist. Court, D. Arizona (2014), the court deemed the plaintiff’s surveys inadmissible after determining them to be unscientific and poorly constructed. The court also rejected the survey expert as unqualified “to design a survey or to interpret survey results” [see 45 F.Supp.3d 1167-1170].
In Dardenne v. MoveOn.org, Civil Action No. 14-00150-SDD-SCR, Dist. Court, M.D. Louisiana (2014), the court placed “little weight on the (plaintiff’s) survey results for the reason that the survey’s methodology was fundamentally flawed in both its sampling and the questions employed.”
Keegan & Donato Consulting can help you solve your biggest IP litigation and marketing research challenges with the actionable insight that can be gained from a consumer survey designed by highly qualified experts who can quickly deliver intelligence within a wide range of budgets.
When you need a trademark survey to demonstrate a likelihood of confusion in connection with your intellectual property litigation, consider Keegan & Donato Consulting. Get in touch with us today at (914) 967-9421 to learn more about our approach and our affordable services.