"‘Border’ struggle erupts over name; Milton volunteer group pressured" by David Abel, Globe Staff | March 4, 2010
Three years ago, after decades of performing volunteer operations worldwide, George Whitelaw decided he wanted to do something that would have a broader impact.
The orthopedic surgeon from Milton started a small nonprofit organization to provide primary care to children in Central America. He called his organization Children Without Borders, because “our treatment is without borders, and our patients are without borders,’’ he said.
The operation was running smoothly - it had grown to have a $60,000 annual budget and three clinics in Costa Rica - until last summer, when Whitelaw received a cease-and-desist letter from a similar but vastly larger organization, Doctors Without Borders. The Geneva-based organization, which employs 27,000 people and has an annual budget of more than $800 million, said the group was infringing on its trademark and threatened legal action if Whitelaw did not change its name.
“It didn’t make any sense to us and seemed like a classic scenario of a big, powerful organization using its clout to undermine and force out a small organization,’’ Whitelaw said. “We just feel it’s crazy that they would spend their resources going after a little mom-and-pop operation like ours, when they could be spending that money on helping people. There has never been any intent or action on our part to associate ourselves with them.’’
This week, Children Without Borders filed a preemptive lawsuit in federal court....Harrumph!
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Yeah, everything alway$ comes down to a law$uit in thi$ damn country.
And here I thought my $50 was going to Haiti.
