Trade Dress Infringement Expert Witnesses: 9

Gabriele Goldaper has over 45 years experience in the Fashion, Garment, Textile Industry, as a retailer, manufacturer, consultant, and college instructor. Ms. Goldaper is a perceptive and articulate Expert Witness who has been involved in more than150+ Apparel Industry Legal Disputes. She has been deposed and testified in bench and jury trials and arbitrations, for both defendants and plaintiffs.

Ms. Goldaper has owned her own clothing manufacturing company and has held key executive positions in major public and private companies in Southern California. She has been a Management Consultant to over 200 new, failing or growing apparel companies, and completed assignments for USAID in Romania, Egypt, El Salvador, Moscow, Thailand and Bulgaria as an apparel expert.

Ms. Goldaper is a 30-year member of the faculty at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising.

Areas of Expertise Include:

• Copyright Infringement and Trademark Cases
• Opinions on Originality and Substantial Similarity
• Fabric/Print Design, and Origin Issues
• Garment Construction and Design issues
• Customs, Practices and Operations of Clothing Business
• Financial Conditions, Valuations and Financial Matters
• Issues with Manufacturing Contractors/Factories: Domestic and Off-Shore
• Wholesale Distribution to Retailers and Internet Sales
• Quality Standards/Specifications used in Production of Garments

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Michael Nranian, JD, MBA, MS has over 30 years experience focusing in Product Development, Intellectual Property, Patent Litigation, Legal and Technical Compliance, and Product Liability Litigation. He is a licensed attorney in Michigan, Texas, & the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Mr. Nranian is a Six Sigma Black Belt, Professional Engineer, & Certified Project Management Professional. He has an in-depth background and education in Law, IP, Electrical, Chemical & Computer Engineering, & Business. He has testified extensively as an expert witness in depositions, hearings, and trials in state & federal courts.

Mr. Nranian conducts Product and Technology Analysis, Patentability & Prior Art Research,and provides Technology & Litigation Support for Intellectual Property. His litigation background includes patent infringement / non-infringement under literal infringement and the doctrine of equivalents, patent validity / invalidity, prior art, & file-wrapper estoppel, for both ITC and Federal cases, including Inter Partes reviews. He conducts analysis of patents and products, prepares claim charts, & expert witness reports. This includes testimony and document preparation for cases before state, and federal court jurisdictions, and the International Trade Commission and the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

Mr. Nranian is thoroughly familiar with all 101, 102, 103, 112, and other enablement and prior art arguments. His experience includes Technology Standards Boards and Licensing Authorities, Antitrust / DOJ, Technology Development and Transfer, Patents, Trademarks, Trade Secrets, and Copyrights, Licensing, Unfair Competition/Trade, False/Deceptive Advertising, & Lanham Act Actions, & Class Actions.

His Product Liability Expert Witness litigation background includes all types of Safety Systems, Electrical Systems, Fires, Accident Reconstruction, and Evaluation of Alternative Designs for Automotive, Medical and other industries. He has over 29 years of experience in Automotive Safety Systems, Sensors, Seatbelts, Airbags / Curtains, Seats, Diagnostic Systems, Crash Recorders, Crash Pulse Analysis, System Diagnostic, Fault Codes, Structure (including roof-crush and door) and front, side & roll-over systems (including sensing and algorithm development) for domestic and international corporations. He is thoroughly familiar with all regulatory (including FMVSS), and corporate due-care requirements, & preemption arguments, occupant kinematics, & injury causation.

Rob Wallace has unique expertise in Trademark, Trade Dress, Copyright, Brand Identity and Package Design Infringement. For 35+ years, Rob ran one of the nation's top Brand Identity Strategy and Package Design Resources providing global branding expertise to Fortune 500 companies in virtually all CPG categories. His clients include P&G, Nestle, Pepsico, Unilever, Kraft, Colgate, The Home Depot, Brown-Foreman, Novartis, J&J and more than 50 market leading companies. Manhattan-based, Rob has been an expert witness for important litigation involving:

• Likelihood of Consumer Confusion
• Secondary Meaning
• Brand Valuation & Dilution
• Package Graphic/Structural Design
• Product Design
• Branding Industry Best Practices
• False/ Deceptive Advertising
• Corrective Advertising
• and all brand related issues.

Rob has commissioned literally hundreds of consumer surveys and is uniquely qualified to determine the results of all research. He has worked for attorneys on both the plaintiff and defense sides of his cases. He is effective and efficient with the average project report requiring between 10 and 12 hours.

Dr. Larry Chiagouris has a rare combination serving as a senior Fortune 500 executive and as an accomplished academician. He has provided expert testimony and written opinions on damages, marketing, advertising, intellectual property issues (including the use of survey research) for plaintiffs & defendants at major national & local firms.

Experience summary:

• Experience evenly divided between plaintiff and defendant engagements over 25 cases

• Several cases include elements of intellectual property issues

• Majority of cases involve elements of consumer behavior or survey research

• Majority of cases involve elements of advertising related strategies and tactics

• Majority of cases involve elements of Internet related tactics

• Majority of cases involve written opinions and depositions

• Written and oral testimony in several Federal District Court jurisdictions

• Engaged by both large multinational law firms and small boutique firms

• Class action cases evenly divided between plaintiffs and defendants

Selected by Agency Magazine as one of 10 best and brightest researchers. He brings extensive experience as a Senior Marketing, Branding and Research Executive responsible for directing major assignments for companies such as AT&T, Campbell Soup, Kraft, Miller Brewing, Peugeot, Pfizer, Prudential and Visa.

He has a Ph.D. in Marketing, is Past Chairman, Advertising Research Foundation and Former Director of the American Marketing Association.

Retained by 100+ Law Firms | Expertise You Need + Experience You Want

"I very strongly recommend Rhonda. She’s great to work with, and her work product is absolutely top-shelf." Greenberg & Traurig, LLP 

Trademark and Trade Dress Infringement | Surveys | Misleading and Deceptive Advertising | Licensing | Commercial Reasonableness | Merchandising

Ms. Harper has provided litigation consultation and expert witness services since 2005. On behalf of Plaintiffs and Defendants (60%/40% respectively), more than 100 law firms have engaged her to provide 70+ surveys, 80+ reports, 30+ rebuttals, 45+ depositions, and testify in 20+ trials.

Ms. Harper has provided courtroom testimony in cases involving Trademark Infringement, Trade Dress Infringement, Patent Infringement, Misleading and False Advertising, Licensing, Defamation, Commercial Reasonableness, Breach of Contract / Performance, and Personal Injury.

Ms. Harper has extensive experience and a deep understanding of survey design, sampling, question construction, data analysis, and methodological pitfalls that introduce bias or systematic error.

Headquartered in Dallas, TX, Ms. Harper has provided litigation consulting and research services in virtually every Circuit as well as JAMS and TTAB.

Professional Experience

CMO and VP Marketing, Walmart Sam's Club

CMO and VP Marketing, VF Corporation VFI

SVP and GM, Ketchum Communications

Global Director, Marketing Communications, UPS

Marketing Promotion Director, Nabisco Biscuit Division

Professional Affiliations

Board of Directors, Speaker, Brand Activation Association

Board of Directors, Speaker, Insights Association

Member, International Trademark Association

Member, Data and Marketing Association

Member, Speaker, American Marketing Association

Member, Speaker, Institute of International Research

Member, American Association for Public Opinion Research

Member, Speaker, PR Society of America

Leonard J. Backer has over 28 years of extensive and successful Seating, Tables and Furniture Industry experience in all key areas. Mr. Backer has been directly involved in the design and development of 250+ seating and table collections. He specializes in Private Label Manufacturing, Sourcing, and Product Development expertise.

Mr. Backer provides aggressive Expert Witness and Litigation Support services to attorneys, insurers and businesses for Plaintiff or Defense. He performs site inspections, detailed product reviews and incident analyses. He has worked with law firms and insurance companies to develop and coordinate strategies for various types of legal actions and lawsuits. Very strong hospitality background.

Mr. Backer has extensive experience with hotel, restaurant, cruise ship, retail store and senior living incidents. Personal Injury and Product Liability Cases. He provides detailed analyses, written opinions, and expert witness reports for clients throughout the U.S. Strong proven deposition and court testimony.

Areas of Expertise:

Furniture Based Disputes, Claims, or Legal Actions Chair Failures Seating Product Liability Personal Injury Purchasing Disputes Seating Product Design / Performance Issues Design Knockoffs

Sales Rep. Commission Disputes Designer Royalties Exclusive Distribution Agreements Product Evaluation Warranty Issues Product Launch Failures Private Label Development Agreements Evaluation of Management Performance

View Leonard Backer's Consulting Profile.

Nevium’s experts are trial-tested IP custom & practice damages experts who take a hands-on approach with all their IP litigation assignments. Whether you are in need of an expert to calculate economic damages as lost profits / unjust enrichment, give an opinion on specific business clauses in a license agreement or to leverage Internet and Social Media analytics to prove or disapprove infringement, Nevium has the experience and expertise. 

Litigation Support:Nevium works closely with C-Level executives, in-house and outside counsel to implement the best possible business strategy that intertwines with the legal strategy. Nevium is part of the team early on in the litigation process assisting with discovery requests and deposition questions. Nevium’s experience and expertise allows the managing attorney to focus on the legal issues knowing that Nevium is proactively taking care of the business side of the case. As experienced Intellectual Property Consultants, they have real-word, hands on IP management, monetization and valuation experience that plays out well in front of a judge and jury. Nevium professionals provide IP expert witness testimony related to economic damages in a range of lost profits, unjust enrichment, relief from royalty, reasonable royalty, relief from pay per click, corrective advertising and IP valuation. They author reports and provide testimony for federal and state court claims, arbitration, and mediation related to false endorsement, defamation, infringement and unfair competition. 

Litigation Expertise

Trademark Damages Copyright Damages Patent Damages

Publicity Rights Damages Defamation Damages Internet and Social Media Damages

Areas of Analyses Expertise

Lost Profits Relief from Royalty Reasonable Royalty

Unjust Enrichment Relief from Pay Per Click Corrective Advertising

Past Law Firm Clients

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld Gordon & Rees Higgs Fletcher & Mack Latham & Watkins Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman

Dorsey & Whitney Greenberg Traurig Husch Blackwell McGuireWoods Winston & Strawn

Doug Bania, CLP, Founding Principal
Doug Bania is a founding principal of Nevium Intellectual Property Consultants.  Nevium is an intellectual property consulting firm specializing in developing IP strategies, IP valuation and monetization of IP as well as providing expert testimony related to IP damages and licensing customs and practices.

Mr. Bania has been the named expert for over 75 cases, deposed 20 times and has provided trial testimony 5 times.

Mr. Bania is a Certified Licensing Professional (CLP), a Google Analytics Certified Individual (GAIQ) and is a past committee member (2016 - 2019) for the International Trademark Association (INTA) Internet Committee and the ICANN Compliance and Domain Name Industry Subcommittee, a current member of the INTA Right of Publicity Committee and the American Bar Association (ABA), Copyright & Social Media Committee.

Mr. Bania specializes in analyses for copyright, trade dress, trade secrets and trademark infringement, publicity rights, social media and Internet infringement, defamation, marketing strategy analyses, royalty rate determinations and other intangible assets. Mr. Bania also provides valuation and monetization strategies for trademarks, trade secrets, publicity rights, domain names, Internet and social media assets, brands, copyrights and other intangible assets for financial reporting, bankruptcy and transactional due diligence.

Brian Buss, CFA, Founding Principal, is a Chartered Financial Analyst with over two decades of experience providing intellectual property and business valuation, expert testimony and transaction advisory. Mr. Buss provide solutions for IP owners, attorneys and licensees both in the United States and overseas. He has a bachelor’s degree in Biology and Economics from Claremont McKenna College and completed the Executive MBA program at San Diego State University. An expert in valuation and economic damages calculations, Mr. Buss has valued copyrights, brands, patents and business interests across a wide range of industries from apparel companies to airports and from technology start-ups to global consumer products companies. Often engaged to analyze unique and proprietary assets and their economic impact and contribution to financial results, he works closely with clients and counsel to develop thorough yet clear and understandable analyses.

San Diego Office 415 Laurel Street, Suite 341 San Diego, CA 92101 Telephone: 858-255-4361 Email: info@nevium.com

Los Angeles Office 9107 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 450 Beverly Hills, CA 90210 Telephone: 310-975-3145 Email: info@nevium.com

View Nevium's Consulting Profile.

Mr. Sarabia has 30 years of experience in the following areas:

LICENSING: revenue projections, forecasts, standards, performance, breach, selection of licensees, damages;

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY: analysis, due diligence, investigations;

COPYRIGHTS: substantial similarity, originality;

TRADEMARKS: secondary meaning, infringement, dilution, searches, investigations, due diligence, theft, trade dress, counterfeiting, rebuttal on damages;

APPAREL BUSINESS: contracts, manufacturing (local, abroad), import, export, sales, distribution, apparel copyrights, substantial similarity of apparel lines, theft and protection of designs, rebuttal on damages;

DESIGN PATENTS: defenses based on lack on originality, identify and analyze obviousness and prior art;

STANDARDS OF PRACTICE OF APPAREL BUSINESS LAWYERS, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAWYERS AND LICENSING LAWYERS

More than 40 years experience: defective packaging; unreasonably dangerous products; failure-to-warn; materials-handling; warehousing; cargo loading and securement; falling cargo; insurance claims for loss or damaged cargo; falling merchandise; patent infringement; trade-dress infringement. Has testified in state and federal courts and knows how to connect with a jury. Has worked for Plaintiffs and Defendants. Services: consulting; analysis; cite inspections; exemplar testing; opining; report writing; testifying. Long list of attorney references. Self-employed consultant. Former employee at Fortune 100 firms. Former university instructor. Many published articles and speaking engagements. Knows how to combine theory and practice.