Open Letter to Humana

Dear Humana, (and its corporate bullies trying to shake down small businesses),

We are in receipt of your notice of infringement. We placed the Humana logo on our website to allow patients to easily see that we are in network with your insurance. Therefore we stand by “fair use” rules that this usage of your logo and/or trademark does not require explicit permission of Humana, or humana.com, as it affords no opportunity for brand confusion, and does not attempt to create confusion or endorsement aside from being a panel physician with your National PPO Products as described on your website. Please see screenshot below:

We are also posting this as an open letter to social media, and our blog to inform patients to steer clear of your products and services. And we will inform them in person when they come into our office. So, to the contrary, we are actively dissuading our patients from Humana plans and are hardly implying “source, sponsorship, affiliation, or endorsement”.

To that end, I, the President, CEO of Nadeem N. Vaidya, M.D. d/b/a Retina Orange County, Inc. as the owner of multiple well-known trade names including but not limited to: the RetinaOC wordmark. As you are no doubt aware, these trade names are used to identify products, services, activities and events related to Retina Orange County, Inc. and Nadeem N. Vaidya, M.D. The emblems, words and phrases of Retina Orange County, Inc. are exclusively used by Retina Orange County, Inc. and any other use by a third party constitutes trademark infringement.

It has come to our attention that your website: Humana.com, uses elements of Retina Orange County and Nadeem N. Vaidya, M.D.’s personal brand information. by using such trademark(s), you have intentionally attempted to attract Internet users to your web site(s) or other online location(s), by creating a likelihood of confusion with Retina Orange County Inc. trademark(s) as to the source, sponsorship, affiliation, or endorsement of your web site(s), online location(s), products or services.

https://finder.humana.com/finder/medical/details?providerId=1546922&providerOfficeId=2170970&provUpdateInfoFlag=0&customerId=1&pfpKey=319

We trust that you will remove all metatags, meta titles, meta descriptions, keywords, URLs, visible or hidden texts including trademarks (or any variations thereof) presently appearing on the above-cited web site(s) and any other web site(s), or draw this issue to the attention of the appropriate person(s).

As part of our Retina Orange County, Inc. Trademark Enforcement Program, be assured that we will continue to monitor your web site(s) to verify your compliance with this letter. Retina Orange County, Inc. reserves all rights, remedies and causes of action it may have in this matter.

Should you require additional information or wish to further discuss this issue, please do not hesitate to contact the undersigned.

Have a wonderful day.

Sincerely,

Nadeem N. Vaidya, M.D.