What Practitioners Should Know About Advertising Injury Coverage

Abstract

Insurance coverage for advertising injury liability is provided by the advertising injury provisions in the Comprehensive General Liability (CGL) policy. The CGL policy is the primary risk-transfer method used by most businesses and is the most frequently litigated policy. The CGL policy provides coverage for liability and defense costs resulting from injury or damage to 3rd parties caused by the insured. The standard CGL policy typically covers 4 categories of liability: property damage, bodily injury, personal injury and advertising injury. The operative event for this coverage is advertising. The injury must occur during the course of the named insured's advertising activities. This causal nexus must be established before an advertising injury offense can trigger coverage. This article sets out the important advertising provisions of the 1986,1998 and 2001 Insurance Service Office (ISO) forms with case citations. No matter what version of the CGL policy you are dealing with, it is absolutely necessary for counsel to read and understand the case law of the jurisdiction that will be applied by the court in deciding the insurance coverage dispute.

Keywords: Insurance, CGL Policy, Advertising Activities, Intellectual Property