Once you recognize the importance of a trademark survey and need an expert to support your case in Maryland, you will appreciate the extraordinary expertise of Keegan & Donato Consulting.
Who are Keegan & Donato?
Keegan & Donato Consulting, located in historic Rye, New York, is a specialty research consultancy that designs and executes consumer-based surveys for attorneys across the nation and their clients in the context of IP disputes.
Principals Mark Keegan and Tony Donato rely on more than 30 cumulative years of proven survey methodologies, deep operational insight, and vast industry experience, to provide expert research, analysis, affidavits and reports on behalf of plaintiffs and defendants in support of trademark infringement litigation.
Some of Our Survey Specialties
Keegan & Donato Consulting’s capabilities include state-of-the art survey designs that are probative of the relevant issues in each case; target specific consumer populations with appropriate universe selection and sampling frames; and feature cutting-edge rotation and randomization of hundreds of question types with customizable complex skip and display logic when appropriate.
Consumer Confusion: A principal function of a trademark is to prevent consumer confusion. A well-executed survey can help brand owners and their counsel assess whether or not consumers are confused. Keegan & Donato Consulting measures likelihood of confusion with both standard survey designs and innovative custom surveys.
Secondary Meaning: Ordinarily, descriptive marks are not protectable as trademarks unless they have acquired a secondary meaning. Keegan & Donato Consulting can design a survey to target relevant consumers in your client’s market and help you determine the extent to which they associate a contested mark with one or more sources.
Dilution: Trademark dilution occurs when an infringing party uses a famous mark in a way that tarnishes the mark’s reputation for quality or dilutes its strength by blurring its distinctiveness. Consumer recognition of a famous mark can be directly measured with a survey.
False Advertising: Issues raised in the Lanham Act, such as false advertising or labeling, are well-suited to testing through consumer surveys by addressing the ways in which consumers interpret – and misinterpret – names, symbols, and other marks used by businesses in commerce.
Trade Dress: Like a trademark, trade dress is protectable under the Lanham Act. Conducting a consumer survey can help you gather the evidence to prove whether the trade dress in question has established secondary meaning or is likely to cause confusion in the marketplace.
The majority of our consumer studies cost between $30,000 and $80,000 to complete, and $55,000 is the most typical cost. We work on a fixed rate or hourly basis depending on your needs and will work with you to design a survey that is both reliable and within your budget.
If you intend to use trademark survey evidence to help you develop a powerful litigation strategy for your Maryland case, the experts at Keegan & Donato Consulting can provide the assistance you need. Contact us at (914) 967-9421 to learn more.