HealthNet
---------
[From the Moderator: HealthNet/SatelLife is the host for our mailing
list 'AFRO-NETS' (among others) and our WEB site:
http://www.healthnet.org/programs/afronets.html ]
DOMAIN DISPUTE - DAVID MEETS GOLIATH IN FEDERAL COURT
If Health Network of California has its way, the domain name "Health-
Net" will be under its exclusive ownership. The HMO, owned by Founda-
tion Health Systems, is insisting that all organizations or individu-
als with the name "HealthNet" in their Internet address must drop the
word. That list could include at least 93 organizations on the web,
according to Holly Ladd, Executive Director of SATELLIFE, a small
non-profit based in Watertown, MA.
SATELLIFE connects health professionals in developing and remote ar-
eas of the world to vital sources of information through a low-cost
e-mail network known as HealthNet. HealthNet, operational for the
past 10 years mostly in Africa and Asia, has enabled doctors, nurses
and other health workers to communicate and access information that
is not otherwise available-information that in some cases has helped
saved lives. "Healthnet.org is more than an Internet address," stated
Ms. Ladd "It is an internationally known source of unbiased relevant
health information and for many, the only e-mail system that can be
accessed by health workers."
But the HMO Health Network of California is playing hardball. Accord-
ing to their corporate annual report, the organization plans to in-
vest $20 million in creating a web presence. Their lawyers have filed
a formal complaint against SATELLIFE with Network Solutions, Inc.
(NSI) for exclusive rights to the HealthNet domain name. The HMO reg-
istered its domain - healthnet.com and healthnet.net - three years
after SATELLIFE had set up its web site, using HealthNet.org. "We had
clearly established an identity by that time. But they have waited
until now to raise this issue," said Holly Ladd. "Why? No one looking
for information on a California HMO can possibly confuse our website
or our organization with that corporation."
SATELLIFE has established e-mail networks in local communities of de-
veloping countries, mostly in Africa. Through these local networks,
including HealthNet Uganda, HealthNet Kenya, HealthNet Nepal, etc.,
medical and health professionals access and distribute information
relevant to their work, participate in high-level discussion forums
on health crises such as HIV/AIDS and cardiovascular disease, and
read peer reviewed articles and abstracts from leading medical jour-
nals. "In countries where the average physician earns between $200
and $400 a month, subscriptions to the leading medical journals are
out of reach," stated Dr. Leela McCullough, Director of Information
Services for SATELLIFE.
SATELLIFE's founder, Dr. Bernard Lown, world-renowned cardiologist
and Professor Emeritus of the Harvard Medical School, is stunned that
Health Network of California has filed an action with NSI against the
small non-profit. "For a financially challenged non-profit to be com-
pelled to change its identification is a possible death sentence. In
any case it will foster confusion and may deny health professionals
in the most impoverished countries of the world vital information
they have come to depend on. We work in an entirely different domain
than the HMO; we neither interfere with the clientele of the Health-
net HMO in California, nor dilute their message or affect their iden-
tity."
SATELLIFE was contacted by lawyers for Health Network of California
in August, told to stop using the term "HealthNet" and to hand over
the domain name to the HMO. According to Ms. Ladd, SATELLIFE's at-
tempts to speak with representatives for the corporation and their
attorneys have consistently been rebuffed. "They have expressed no
interest in problem solving or recognizing the impact this change
will have on us, and on thousands of health workers in the poorest
communities of the world," said Ladd.
By filing a complaint with NSI HealthNet California has set into mo-
tion a process that could strip SatelLife of the domain name. While
the proscribed NSI dispute process allowed for a 30-day period for
the parties to reach an agreement, HealthNet California has refused
to negotiate with SatelLife. This has left SatelLife with only one
option to preserve its use of its internationally known domain name -
filing an action for declaratory Judgement today in federal court in
Boston, Massachusetts.
Dr. Lown laments, "This is not what we wanted. It will distract us
from our mission and drain resources that are desperately needed by
health providers in the developing world." SATELLIFE believes it
could successfully defend its use of the name HealthNet, but the cost
for such a fight would be prohibitive for a small organization.
SATELLIFE's work in developing countries is supported with funding
from individuals, corporations and foundations.
Contact:
Holly Ladd or Roye Bourke
SATELLIFE
Tel: +1-617-926-9400
mailto:hladd@usa.healthnet.org
mailto:rbourke@usa.healthnet.org
--
Send mail for the `AFRO-NETS' conference to `afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org'.
Mail administrative requests to `majordomo@usa.healthnet.org'.
For additional assistance, send mail to: `owner-afro-nets@usa.healthnet.org'.