Michael Atkins - Seattle Trademark Lawyer

In January, Lifestyle Lift Holding, Inc., filed suit in the Eastern District of Michigan against Seattle-based Realself, Inc. Lifestyle licenses its registered LIFESTYLE LIFT trademark to cosmetic and plastic surgery centers. Realself owns the www.RealSelf.com Web site it describes as an “independent health and beauty community for consumers to engage in an authentic conversation about ‘anti-aging’ product and treatments.”

Lifestyle alleges that Realself’s Web site contains a link that takes viewers to a page that “purports to be an information page about ‘Lifestyle Lift,’” and another labeled “Michigan Lifestyle Lift” that takes viewers to a page listing physicians who are not affiliated with Lifestyle Lift. Lifestyle also alleges that Realself’s Web site contains pages with Lifestyle’s LIFESTYLE LIFT trademark in the “title, metaname/description, and metaname/ keywords” sections of those pages’ HTML code. This, Lifestyle alleges, constitutes trademark infringement, unfair competition, and violations of Michigan’s unfair competition statutes.

Today, Realself filed its answer, denying Lifestyle’s allegations, and counterclaiming for breach of contract, unfair competition, and violation of Michigan’s Consumer Protection Act. In particular, Realself alleges that Lifestyle and its employees or agents have “posed as patients of Lifestyle Lift on www.realself.com, and have posted numerous comments on www.realself.com purporting to be consumers of the procedure and other procedures performed by Lifestyle Lift facilities.” These comments, Realself alleges, falsely “praise, recommend, and describe positive experiences with the Lifestyle Lift procedure and often contradict the testimonials posted by other, real users of the www.realself.com site” in violation of the site’s terms of use.

The case cite is Lifestyle Lift Holdings, Inc. v. Realself, Inc., (E.D. Mich.).