8.3 Coverage B: Personal and Advertising Injury
Key Takeaways
- Coverage B insures seven offenses: false arrest/detention/imprisonment, malicious prosecution, wrongful eviction/entry/invasion of a room, oral or written publication that slanders or libels, oral or written publication that violates privacy, use of another's advertising idea, and infringement of copyright/title/slogan in the insured's advertisement.
- Coverage B is triggered by an OFFENSE committed during the policy period — not by an occurrence — so the timing of the wrongful act controls.
- Advertising-related offenses are covered only when committed in the insured's 'advertisement,' which the policy defines broadly to include websites and certain electronic content used to attract customers.
- Knowing-falsity, knowing-violation-of-rights, prior-publication, and criminal-act exclusions defeat Coverage B; so does material published by or for an insured in the business of advertising/publishing.
- Coverage B shares the Personal and Advertising Injury Limit per person/organization and is capped by the General Aggregate, not the Products-Completed Operations Aggregate.
What Coverage B Provides
Coverage B insures liability for personal and advertising injury caused by an enumerated offense arising out of the insured's business. Unlike Coverage A's physical-harm focus, Coverage B addresses non-physical harm: reputation, privacy, and intellectual-property wrongs in advertising.
The Seven Listed Offenses (Exam Gold)
The ISO definition lists exactly seven offenses. Know them verbatim:
| # | Offense | Plain-English example |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | False arrest, detention, or imprisonment | Store security wrongly detains a shopper |
| 2 | Malicious prosecution | Filing a baseless criminal complaint |
| 3 | Wrongful eviction, wrongful entry, or invasion of a right of private occupancy | Landlord illegally locks out a tenant |
| 4 | Oral or written publication that slanders or libels a person/organization or disparages goods/services | Falsely claiming a competitor's product is unsafe |
| 5 | Oral or written publication that violates a person's right of privacy | Publishing private facts about a customer |
| 6 | Use of another's advertising idea in your advertisement | Copying a rival's distinctive ad campaign |
| 7 | Infringing upon another's copyright, trade dress, or slogan in your advertisement | Using a competitor's tagline in your ad |
Trap: Offenses 1–5 are the classic "personal injury" offenses; offenses 6–7 (and the advertising-related parts of 4–5) are "advertising injury." Patent and trademark infringement are NOT covered — only copyright, trade dress, and slogan in an advertisement.
The 'Offense' Trigger and the 'Advertisement' Definition
Coverage B applies to injury caused by an offense committed during the policy period — the wrongful act, not the resulting injury, sets the trigger.
| Coverage A | Coverage B |
|---|---|
| Trigger = occurrence (accident) | Trigger = offense (wrongful act) |
| Injury must occur in-period | Offense must be committed in-period |
"Advertisement" means a notice broadcast or published to the general public or specific market segments about goods/services for the purpose of attracting customers — and includes material on the insured's website and certain regularly published parts of a website. Advertising offenses (6 and 7) are covered only when committed in an advertisement.
Limits That Apply to Coverage B
- Subject to the Personal and Advertising Injury Limit — the most paid for all such injury sustained by any one person or organization.
- Capped by the General Aggregate, not the Products-Completed Operations Aggregate.
- Typical limits: P&AI $1,000,000; General Aggregate $2,000,000.
Coverage B Exclusions (Heavily Tested)
| Exclusion | What it bars |
|---|---|
| Knowing violation of rights | Insured acted knowing the act would violate another's rights and cause P&AI |
| Material published with knowledge of falsity | The "knowing-falsity" defamation exclusion |
| Material published before the policy period | The prior-publication rule — first publication controls |
| Criminal acts | Committed by or at the direction of the insured |
| Contractual liability | Liability assumed under contract (with narrow exceptions) |
| Breach of contract | Except an implied contract to use another's advertising idea |
| Wrong description / failure to conform | Quality, performance, or price misstatements about your goods |
| Infringement of copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret | Except copyright/trade-dress/slogan in your advertisement |
| Insureds in the media/advertising business | Publishers, broadcasters, advertisers (need media liability) |
| Electronic chatrooms or bulletin boards | Hosted or controlled by the insured |
| Unauthorized use of another's name in domain/email | Cyber-squatting type conduct |
Worked Scenarios
| Scenario | Covered? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Store falsely detains a customer for shoplifting | Yes | False arrest/detention (offense 1) |
| Company's ad uses a competitor's copyrighted photo | Yes | Copyright infringement in an advertisement (offense 7) |
| Insured knowingly publishes a false safety claim about a rival | No | Knowing-falsity exclusion |
| Insured's product infringes a competitor's patent | No | Patent infringement is not a listed offense |
| A defamatory ad first ran two years before the policy began | No | Prior-publication exclusion |
The First-Publication Rule
For publication-based offenses (libel, slander, privacy violation), the offense is committed when the material is first published, even if it stays online or in circulation for years. This prior-publication exclusion prevents a claimant from triggering a later policy simply because a damaging statement remained visible.
Worked example: A company posts a defamatory product comparison on its website in 2022 and is sued in 2025. Because the material was first published in 2022, the offense was committed then; a CGL incepting in 2024 will not respond, even though the page was still live in 2025. The insured must look to whatever policy was in force when the statement first went public.
Coverage B vs. Professional Liability
Coverage B is not a substitute for errors and omissions (E&O) or media liability. The exclusion for insureds "in the business of advertising, broadcasting, publishing, or telecasting" means an ad agency, newspaper, or broadcaster cannot rely on a generic CGL for the very content it produces for clients — those organizations need a dedicated media liability policy.
| Need | Right policy |
|---|---|
| Occasional ad mistake by a non-media business | CGL Coverage B |
| A publisher/broadcaster's editorial content | Media Liability |
| Professional advice causing economic loss | Professional Liability (E&O) |
| Patent infringement defense | Intellectual-property / patent policy |
Why Personal Injury Differs from Bodily Injury
A recurring trap pairs "personal injury" with "bodily injury." In insurance terms, "personal injury" under Coverage B is non-physical — it is the dignitary and reputational harm from the listed offenses. "Bodily injury" under Coverage A is physical. A wrongful detention that involves no physical harm is Coverage B personal injury, not Coverage A bodily injury, even though the victim was physically held. Reading the offense, not the physical setting, gives the right answer.
A store security guard detains a shopper suspected of theft, but no theft occurred and the shopper sues for false imprisonment. Which CGL coverage responds?
Which intellectual-property claim is COVERED under Coverage B?
Why would Coverage B deny a claim where the insured ran an ad repeating a defamatory statement it knew was false?