Patent and Trademark Office Society’s 2023 Rossman Award

The Patent and Trademark Office Society has awarded the Rossman Award to Paul Wazzan, George Derpanopoulos, and Jaci Overmann’s paper on “The Use of Conjoint Analysis in High-Stakes Litigation,” which was published in the Journal of the Patent and Trademark Office Society (JPTOS).

The Rossman Award is given annually to the author(s) of the article in the JPTOS that makes the greatest contribution to the field of patents, trademarks, or copyrights. Factors taken into consideration include accuracy, depth of research, originality, readability, timeliness of the subject, and potential for impact on the existing system. Each year, three highly qualified judges who are leading professionals in the intellectual property field consider all of the articles published in the JPTOS between July of one year and June of the next year.

In this article, the authors provide an historical review up to Navarro et. al. v. Procter and Gamble, which withstood a rigorous Daubert challenge. They review the mechanics of conjoint analysis; briefly summarizes recent matters where the approach was used and accepted (or rejected) by courts; draws inferences based on these cases; and presents a recent case where conjoint analysis was successfully used, resulting in a detailed court opinion. Read the article here.