Glossary

Personal and advertising injury

CGL coverage for listed offenses such as defamation, invasion of privacy, wrongful eviction, false arrest and copying another's advertising idea or slogan.

Also called: Coverage B, personal injury, advertising injury, personal and advertising injury liability

Personal and advertising injury is Coverage B of the ISO commercial general liability form, CG 00 01. Coverage A responds to accidents; Coverage B responds to a closed list of offenses committed during the policy period. The list: false arrest, detention or imprisonment; malicious prosecution; wrongful eviction or wrongful entry into a person's premises; publication of material that slanders, libels or disparages; publication that violates a right of privacy; copying someone's advertising idea or style of advertisement in your own advertisement; and infringing another's copyright, trade dress or slogan in your advertisement.

Because the list is exclusive, a claim that does not fit an enumerated offense is not covered, whatever it is called. Say a landscaping company's flyer calls a rival "a cheat who ruins lawns." The rival sues for defamation, and Coverage B is the part of the policy that can respond. If the flyer instead copied the rival's registered logo, the trademark exclusion would likely apply.

The exclusions matter more than the grant. The form removes knowing violations, material published with knowledge of its falsity, breach of contract, goods that fail to match their advertised quality, patent, trademark and trade secret infringement, and claims against media and internet-type businesses. Coverage B has its own per-person limit and counts toward the general aggregate. The guide on personal and advertising injury coverage walks through each offense and exclusion.

Last reviewed October 10, 2026

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Related terms

Commercial general liability (CGL) The standard business policy for claims that your operations, premises or products injured someone or damaged property, usually on ISO form CG 00 01. Bodily injury Physical injury, sickness or disease suffered by a person, including death resulting from it; the harm that triggers liability coverage for injuries. Property damage In liability policies, physical injury to tangible property including its loss of use, or loss of use of tangible property that was not physically injured. Occurrence In liability insurance, the event that triggers coverage and determines which limit and deductible apply; the ISO CGL form defines it as an accident. Exclusion A policy provision that removes coverage for specified perils, property, people or types of loss that the insuring agreement would otherwise include.

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