Intellectual Property Law

How to Find the Right Expert Witness for Your Trademark Case (Part 2)

By Michael Atkins

STL’s previous post offered some strategies for finding the right expert witness in trademark cases. On Friday, the Las Vegas Trademark Attorney blog added a few suggestions, including the following:

“One popular online source is the online expert witness directory JurisPro. Other expert witness websites listing the credentials of various trademark experts include ALMExperts.com, expertwitnesses.com, and Intota.com.”

These are good tips. Thanks, Ryan.

For Westlaw users out there, here is another that I think is particularly worthwhile. The Intellectual Property Expert Witness Filings (IP-EW-DOCS) database contains expert reports, affidavits, deposition transcripts, and trial transcripts of expert witnesses who have testified in IP cases. This is a good way not only to identify who the quality trademark experts are, but also to learn how they have testified in previous cases. These same materials are great for those preparing to depose or cross-examine trademark experts. Westlaw can be pricey (and this is a “specialty” database that isn’t included in many plans — including my firm’s), but selective use of this resource can be well worth it. Lexis and other providers may have similar databases worth checking out. The federal court system’s PACER database, for one, offers incredible resources to anyone willing to wade through court filings and pay $0.08 per page.

Disclaimer: STL’s publisher is writing a book chapter on using experts in trademark litigation for Thomson-Reuters, the company that owns Westlaw (which may explain why I have expert witnesses on the brain). I’ve nonetheless tried not to let that influence what I’ve said here.

Full post as published by Seattle Trademark Lawyer on April 27, 2008 (boomark / email).