New Survey Methods Address Consumer Uncertainty in Trademark Law
IPWatchdog.com, October 8, 2021
In their article “New Survey Methods Address Consumer Uncertainty in Trademark Law,” published on IPWatchdog.com, Analysis Group affiliate Joel Steckel, Vice President Anne Cai, and Senior Analyst Helene Rowland describe modifications to conventional trademark survey formats that can help researchers test for strength or certainty of beliefs. Going beyond simply asking what consumers believe and evaluating how strongly they believe it may, in some cases, reveal important new information that can enhance the utility of the survey results in trademark and trade dress litigation.
The authors describe the research approach taken by Professor Steckel and his colleagues at the NYU Stern School of Business, who replicated a survey employed in a recent genericism matter to assess whether a term was perceived to be a brand name or a common name. The researchers then tested three different ways that the survey methodology could be modified to shed light on consumers’ varying belief strength and help tell a more complete story of consumers’ beliefs.