Trademarks are designed to identify and distinguish a product’s distinctiveness from its competitors and to protect consumers from confusion as to the source of a given product. If you are involved in litigation and need a likelihood of confusion analysis to bolster your case strategy, Keegan & Donato Consulting can help.
The statute most responsible for protecting trademarks against confusion is the Lanham Act, which is codified in 15 U.S. Code §1125. Many common issues in trademark law and other areas of civil litigation, such as consumer confusion, dilution, false designation of origin, trade dress infringement, and false advertising, are addressed in the Lanham Act.
Principals Mark Keegan and Anthony Donato have decades of experience in consumer surveys in the context of intellectual property disputes, and have worked with many well-known firms from coast to coast, including Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP in Los Angeles, Riemer & Braunstein LLP in Boston, Debevoise & Plimpton LLP in New York, and Reed Smith LLP in Chicago.
Value of Consumer Research Studies
A well-designed consumer research study can provide empirical evidence on the issue of whether an alleged trademark infringement is having a real world impact on consumers. A consumer study on the issue of trade dress can determine whether consumers associate a particular package design with a single, unique source.
In conjunction with IP litigation, Keegan & Donato Consulting specializes in a wide range of trademark and trade-dress analyses and surveys, including:
- Likelihood of Confusion
- Strength of Mark
- Secondary Meaning
- Acquired Distinctiveness
- Lanham Act Claims
- Survey Critiques and Rebuttals
Consumer research is also essential for brands who want to gauge consumer perception of their products or services; assess the buying habits of a target market; test the marketplace for a new brand name, logo or concept; and other key marketing issues.
Keegan & Donato Consulting works on a fixed rate or hourly basis depending on the needs of each client, and will help you design a survey that is both reliable and within your budget.
Our Survey Methodology
Keegan & Donato Consulting adheres to survey design, execution and presentation best practices. Our consumer surveys direct objective, non-leading questions to an appropriate universe of consumers. Procedures are in place to minimize potential biases in data collection, and our services include a full analysis and reporting of survey data.
We have designed hundreds of consumer research studies across many different industries with an objective of obtaining high-quality information from a representative sample of the targeted population. Survey samples are obtained from prominent marketing research companies that maintain multi-million member online consumer panels.
We can provide you with technical and strategic advice; help you analyze the economic, financial and/or technical complexities of your case; help you determine suitable deposition questions to ask; help you prepare a testifying expert for deposition and trial; or critique the potential weaknesses in an adversary’s survey evidence in a rebuttal report.
If you are looking for trademark survey experts with a combination of strategic and analytical skills who can provide a likelihood of confusion analysis to strengthen your case, Keegan & Donato Consulting offers the expertise and data-gathering capabilities you need. Contact us today at (914) 967-9421 to find out more about our wide range of services.