Personal and advertising injury
Also called Coverage B, personal injury or advertising injury
Definition
Personal and advertising injury is the part of general liability that can cover claims over offenses like libel, slander, false arrest, privacy violations and copying another’s advertising.
Most of general liability is about physical harm: someone gets hurt, or something gets broken. Personal and advertising injury covers a different kind of harm, from words and actions rather than accidents. In the standard general liability form, it’s Coverage B.
What it covers
The standard form defines personal and advertising injury as injury arising from a list of offenses:
- false arrest, detention or imprisonment
- malicious prosecution
- wrongful eviction or entry, or invasion of someone’s right to occupy a room or property
- publishing material that slanders or libels a person or organization, or disparages their products or services
- publishing material that violates a person’s right of privacy
- using another’s advertising idea in your advertisement
- infringing someone’s copyright, trade dress or slogan in your advertisement
It’s a closed list. A claim generally has to fit one of these offenses to be covered, and coverage is subject to the policy’s terms, limits and exclusions. It has its own limit, shown on your declarations page, which also counts toward your aggregate limit.
What it usually doesn’t cover
Common exclusions include offenses you commit on purpose, statements you knew were false, breach of contract, and most intellectual property claims beyond the advertising offenses above. Businesses whose core work is advertising, publishing or broadcasting often find that work excluded. Claims over data breaches are usually a matter for cyber insurance instead.