Lifestyle Lift and consumer-oriented Web site RealSelf.com have settled a legal battle over negative reviews. Background on this case can be found here and here, but the upshot is that earllier this year numerous Lifestyle Lift customers were displeased with the "lunch-time lift" firm's facelift procedure, and they consequently posted reviews about it on RealSelf, a site devoted to aesthetic surgery.
Lifestyle Lift sued RealSelf, claiming trademark infringement, and RealSelf countersued, claiming Lifestyle Lift padded RealSelf's site with shill reviews.
UPDATE Lifestyle Lift recently sued another firm, Infomercialscams.com, using a similar approach. From Online Media Today:
Public Citizen also is representing the site InfomercialScams.com,
which was recently sued by plastic surgery company LifestyleLift.com
for trademark infringement. LifestyleLift alleges that
InfomercialScams.com -- which hosts users' complaints about
LifestyleLift -- uses the phrase Lifestyle Lift in a URL
(http://www.infomercialscams.com/scams/lifestyle_lift_complaints) and
buys the keywords "lifestyle lift" on search engines. The company
argues that the result is that users looking for Lifestyle Lift will
instead by directed to InfomercialScams.com.
The judge who heard the case dismissed it on May 2, 2008.
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