Keegan & Donato Consulting can deliver the support you need for your trademark litigation in Los Angeles. As consumer survey experts, we have been engaged by leading attorneys across the nation to provide trademark surveys, marketing research surveys, and other types of surveys to support their case strategies.

Keegan & Donato Consulting is a specialty research consultancy and one of the most experienced companies in the field of trademark litigation. Principals Mark Keegan and Tony Donato have a combined 25-plus years of industry experience and provide expert research, analysis, affidavits, and reports on behalf of plaintiffs and defendants in support of trademark infringement litigation.

We have developed surveys for and collaborated with premier firms that manage some of the largest intellectual property portfolios in the world, such as Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP and Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP, headquartered in Los Angeles, Kirkland & Ellis LLP in Washington, DC, and Cooley LLP in Palo Alto, CA.

We are members of the International Trademark Association (INTA), the American Marketing Association (AMA), the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR), the Association for Consumer Research (ACR), and ESOMAR, the leading global association for market, social and opinion researchers, and offer other skills and tools that can help you strengthen your case.

Could a Consumer Survey Help Your Case?

Although good survey evidence can be powerful, consumer surveys are generally not accepted without challenge. Courts require accurate, real-world data, and poor designs and methodological flaws can result in partial or full exclusion of survey evidence from a case.

In Elliott v. Google, Inc., 45 F. Supp. 3d 1156 – Dist. Court, D. Arizona (2014), for example. the plaintiff’s surveys were deemed inadmissible because the Court determined them to be unscientific and poorly constructed. The survey expert was also rejected as not qualified “to design a survey or to interpret survey results.”

In Water Pik, Inc. v. Med-Systems, Inc., 726 F.3d 1142, 1144-50 (10th Cir. 2013), there is a lengthy discussion wherein the Court concludes that the defendant’s survey evidence “had too many methodological flaws to be of any probative value.”

Before you consider doing without a survey, consider that courts have also drawn negative inferences from the absence of survey evidence. In Pharmacia Corp. v. Alcon Labs, Inc., 201 F.Supp. 2d 335, 373 (D.N.J. 2002), for example, the court noted that, “Pharmacia is not legally required to conduct a confusion survey. But … such a failure, particularly when the trademark owner is financially able, justifies an inference that the plaintiff believes the results of the survey will be unfavorable.”

Hiring qualified survey experts such as Keegan & Donato Consulting will undoubtedly have a significant impact on whether the court deems your survey results admissible. We consider methodological design among the most important aspects of designing a consumer research study.

When your IP litigation in Los Angeles calls for a trademark survey expert, take advantage of the expertise offered by Keegan & Donato Consulting. We can deliver persuasive survey evidence that will stand up to judicial scrutiny. Get in touch with us today at (914) 967-9421 to explore our wide range of services.