Nashville startup sues reporter over blog

From the Nashville Post:

A local orthodontics startup is once again heading to court to stymie criticism of its direct-to-consumer teeth alignment product.

SmileDirectClub filed suit in Davidson County Chancery Court Wednesday against Gizmodo Media Group and author Nick Douglas over his story titled, “You Could Fuck Up Your Mouth With SmileDirectClub.” The company argues that the story, posted last week to Gizmodo site Lifehacker, is “filled with unsubstantiated false statements and innuendo that attacks [SmileDirectClub’s] products and services.”

The author describes criticisms from the American Association of Orthodontists about at-home alignment products but admits he has no direct experience with SmileDirectClub products. Instead, he’s been using a product from Invisalign, the parent company for which also manufactures SDC’s products and is a major investor in SDC.

“All these false statements and the defamatory title are done under the guise of ‘journalism’ without any disclaimer that the statements are allegedly his opinion,” SDC wrote in the complaint submitted by three Nashville-based attorneys from Bahou Miller.