Here at daisyNews, we’ve thrown many a stone at claims administrators for non-compliance, malfeasance, and the kind of general unscrupulousness that makes workers’ comp a trial for providers and injured workers.

But as it turns out, Travelers Insurance believes daisyBill is at fault. Attorneys for Travelers contacted daisyBill regarding a matter of serious legal and ethical import: our use of umbrellas.

In a lengthy letter, Travelers’ attorneys informed us that Travelers does, in fact, own the trademark rights to “all colors” of the umbrella symbol with which Travelers festoons its marketing materials. Travelers insists daisyNews cease use of its umbrella, specifically citing its ownership of the following:

1. Red umbrellas
2. Black umbrellas
3. All colors of umbrellas
4. Inverted umbrellas

Regarding the last item, Travelers noted that daisyNews is not authorized to use “any modified versions” of the Travelers umbrella.

We could point out that umbrellas are ubiquitous items, used just as often to protect human hairdos from rain as to raise Travelers’ brand awareness, or that umbrellas are a common symbol for insurance, or that, even if Travelers owned all umbrella images, a fair use case could be made for proper journalistic usage of the logo.

However, we decided to comply with Travelers’ demands, and respect the insurer’s complete and utter ownership of all things umbrella. Per Travelers’ request, below we list instances where we replaced our umbrella graphics with beach parasols.

We are happy to allow Travelers its umbrellas — especially considering Mary Poppins’ fate.

Our Solution: Beach Parasols

In the event our readers wish to remind themselves of the various tactics by which Travelers avoids paying doctors for treating injured workers, see this article, which has been updated with a new image of a Beach Parasol.

Reasonable minds will agree that beach parasols, designed to protect users from excessive sun, are inherently distinct from umbrellas, which offer protection from rain.

Umbrella Banished From Claims Administrator Directory

Recently, daisyBill released to the workers' comp community a free Claims Administrator Directory to help billers locate hard-to-find information. Unfortunately, our announcements of this gift to billers who struggle with work comp’s complexities included images of — wait for it — umbrellas.

We have modified the offending articles as shown below.

https://blog.daisybill.com/workers-comp-claims-administrator-directory

https://blog.daisybill.com/claims-admin-directory-mpn

We welcome feedback from Travelers’ legal department regarding our transition to parasol-only graphic design policies. Of course, if Travelers begrudges daisyBill’s using a beach parasol, we will happily make another image adjustment.

We must also apologize for our failure to invent a working time machine, as Travelers dated its correspondence May 10, 2022, but requested a response from daisyBill by May 1st. Perhaps we could address our differences over friendly tropical drinks — complete with tiny BEACH PARASOLS.

Protect your practice. daisyBill helps providers get fast, accurate reimbursement for treating injured workers, at state fee schedule rates. Reach out to learn how we can help.

CONTACT DAISYBILL