Trademark Survey Companies – Kansas City

If your infringement litigation in Kansas City calls for a trademark survey, consider the capabilities of companies like Keegan & Donato Consulting, and take advantage of our training, expertise, and data-gathering capabilities.

Keegan & Donato Consulting is a specialty research consultancy and one of the most experienced companies in the field of trademark litigation. Mark Keegan and Tony Donato offer a combined 25+ years of experience and have collaborated extensively with plaintiffs and defendants in support of trademark infringement and trade dress litigation and on cases involving marketing, business and financial issues.

We design, execute, analyze, and present the results of trademark litigation surveys in these and other areas:

• Likelihood of Confusion
• Strength of Mark
• Secondary Meaning
• Acquired Distinctiveness
• Lanham Act Claims
• Survey Critiques and Rebuttals

Why Surveys Can Be Useful

Is doing a survey worthwhile? Can it help you shape your strategy or win your case? These are commonly asked questions.

When infringement is alleged, litigants often use consumer surveys as evidence in support of (or against) a claim of likelihood of confusion, trade dress, distinctiveness, genericness or secondary meaning.

Surveys can be valuable tools because they provide insight into actual consumer perceptions, often when no other scientific evidence is available. They can also be a critical factor in the Court’s assessment of a case.

In Classic Liquor Importers, LTD v. Spirits International B.V., No. 15 Civ. 6503 (JSR), Dist. Court, S.D. New York 2016, for example, the quality of the parties’ products was at issue in the case. The Court disregarded this factor, however, stating that, “without the aid of consumer survey evidence or expert testimony, the Court is unable to draw any conclusions as to the respective quality of the products.”

Sound Methodology

Methodological design is the most critical aspect of designing consumer research studies. Courts take great care to verify whether the survey design or methodology was flawed in any way. If found to be flawed, the survey may be given little weight.

Keegan & Donato Consulting’s state-of-the art survey designs adhere to established principles that include:

• Rigorous and valid design that is probative of the relevant issues in the case;
• Selection of the appropriate universe and sample;
• Inclusion of representative, qualified respondents;
• Use of clear and concise questions that are not leading or ambiguous;
• Use of procedures to minimize potential biases in data collection; and
• Full analysis and reporting of survey data.

Employing qualified trademark survey experts, such as Keegan & Donato Consulting, will have an impact on whether the court deems your survey results admissible.

Consider, for example, Water Pik, Inc. v. Med-Systems, Inc., 726 F.3d 1142, 1144-50 (10th Cir. 2013), which includes a lengthy discussion about why the Court determined that the defendant’s survey evidence, “had too many methodological flaws to be of any probative value.”

As you evaluate trademark survey companies to assist you with litigation in Kansas City or elsewhere in the country, it is important to choose one that will meet the courts’ standards for design, execution and analysis. Get in touch with Keegan & Donato Consulting at (914) 967-9421 to learn more.

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