HEALTH

Inglewood HMO Wins Ruling: A federal judge in Los Angeles has granted a preliminary injunction barring United HealthCare from advertising or promoting its HMO in Southern California. The ruling is a victory for United Health Plan, a nonprofit HMO based in Inglewood, that sued its giant Minneapolis-based rival two weeks ago for unfair competition and trade name infringement. U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian has ruled that United HealthCare, which recently entered the Southern California market, was using a trade name “confusingly similar” to United Health, which began using that name in 1980. A United HealthCare executive said the firm would immediately cancel a television advertising campaign in five Southern California counties affected by the ruling.