When you need a trademark survey expert to assist you with litigation in Missouri, Keegan & Donato Consulting can help you meet the courts’ requirements for survey design, execution and analysis.
Keegan & Donato Consulting offers wide-ranging strategic and analytical skills in the area of IP litigation, 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.
Why Expert Advice is Valuable
Expert advice is important for a variety of 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 or not a descriptive mark has acquired secondary meaning; whether or not competing marks are likely to confuse consumers; whether or not a mark is famous; and whether or not one brand’s mark is likely to cause dilution to a competing mark.
Selecting the right type of survey for a case requires skill and experience. Keegan & Donato Consulting approaches survey design on a case-by-case basis in view of the fact that each case is unique. We work closely with clients to understand and appreciate the fundamental issues driving the case, and work to maximize the value of the research evidence to the overall case strategy.
Our Survey Specialties
Our firm specializes in a wide range of trademark and trade dress surveys and analyses, including:
- Likelihood of Confusion –Surveys are commonly used to ascertain whether or not consumers are confused by a party’s use of a contested mark. We measure likelihood of confusion with both standard survey designs and innovative custom surveys.
- Secondary Meaning – Descriptive marks are not ordinarily protectable as trademarks unless they have acquired a secondary meaning. We can help to strengthen your case strategy by targeting relevant consumers in your client’s market and evaluating how they perceive your client’s brand.
- Strength of Mark –Trademark law protects distinctive marks, and the levels of legal protection are directly linked to the strength of the mark. Consumer surveys can be used to measure the level of consumer recognition of a mark or brand.
- Acquired Distinctiveness– Consumer research studies can help determine whether consumers associate a mark with a certain product and whether the mark is distinctive enough not to cause confusion about the origin of goods or services associated with it.
- Dilution –Consumer recognition of a famous mark can be measured directly by a survey. Because there are a variety of approaches to substantiating a claim of dilution, we work closely with clients to understand the fundamental issues of their unique cases.
- False Advertising –Issues raised in the Lanham Act, such as misleading advertising or labeling, are well-suited to testing through consumer research by addressing the ways in which consumers interpret—and misinterpret—names, symbols, and other marks used by businesses in commerce.
The real-world results Keegan & Donato Consulting has collected through trademark surveys has provided clients a basis for presenting fact-based evidence in support of their positions. Call our experts at (914) 967-9421 to find out how we could help bolster your Missouri case.