Recently in the Middle District of Florida (8:15-cv-00990-SDM-TGW), United States District Judge Steven D. Merryday granted the motion for summary judgment by defendant Barker Boatworks, LLC, after having found that plaintiff Yellowfin Yachts, Inc. failed to show sufficient evidence of trade dress infringement. Judge Merryday ruled that a survey conducted by Yellowfin’s expert, purporting to show likelihood of confusion related to the sheer line design of Barker’s bay boats, suffered severe methodological flaws that “fatally undermine the reliability” of the survey, and excluded the survey under Daubert.
Trademark survey expert Robert L. Klein, Chairman of Applied Marketing Science, Inc., provided the survey rebuttal critique of behalf of Barker Boatworks to refute the survey conducted by Yellowfin’s expert in this matter.
Barker Boatworks was represented at trial by Brian Gilchrist, of the Orlando office of Allen, Dyer, Doppelt, Milbrath & Gilchrist.
For additional information on Applied Marketing Science’s survey experts, including Robert L. Klein, please visit our survey experts page.