What Types of General Liability Insurance Do You Need?
A general liability insurance policy covers a variety of different risks, such as bodily injury and property damage. It can also cover advertising injuries and copyright infringement. Let’s explore a few of the most common types of policies to help you decide which is right for you. Once you’ve decided on a general liability insurance policy, you can then choose how much you need to cover your business.
Property damage
General liability insurance is an important piece of business insurance to have. It pays for damages caused to other people’s property, especially if you interact with customers on a daily basis. For example, if you operate a wholesale business and use a forklift to lift products, you may be sued for causing damage to a neighbor’s property. Alternatively, if you work in a plumbing business, you may be sued for knocking over a valuable vase at a customer’s home. General liability insurance will pay for legal costs, if you can prove you were negligent.
General liability insurance covers bodily injury, property damage, and legal fees incurred due to third-party claims. Depending on the policy, you may also get additional coverage for completed operations and products. Some policies also include premise liability coverage, which covers accidents on your property.
Advertising injury
Advertising injury and general liability insurance is a vital part of any business policy. It protects businesses from claims of disparagement of goods or services, slander, privacy invasion, and copyright infringement. In most cases, these cases result in financial losses to the injured party. This type of insurance is available in most standard policies, and is particularly important for those involved in advertising and marketing.
Advertising injury is particularly important for media companies, as their exposure is typically higher than that of a general liability policy. This coverage protects against lawsuits brought against media companies for publishing, advertising, and graphic design. It also protects against copyright infringement and libel. In some cases, media companies may need to purchase separate insurance policies to protect themselves.
Another area where advertising injury coverage can protect a business is for incidents where the advertiser has dissatisfied employees who decide to start their own law firm. The new law firm may place a billboard using a similar color and font as the one used by the former company. When the disgruntled employee complains, the former employer can sue the new firm for advertising injury and demand the billboard be removed within 48 hours.
Copyright infringement
Many insurance policies offer copyright infringement coverage. This type of insurance can cover a wide range of claims, including those involving advertising injury and property damage. A CGL policy can be extremely beneficial in protecting a business against claims involving copyright infringement. However, there are some important things to consider before purchasing such a policy. The first is that you should check the policy’s exclusions and coverage limits.
If you have a CGL policy, you can usually get coverage for copyright infringement under the advertising injury clause. The specific language of the advertising injury clause will determine whether copyright infringement is covered. If you’ve purchased CGL insurance, you should alert your carrier as soon as you receive a demand letter or suit. Failure to do so may result in the carrier denying coverage.
Another important factor to consider is whether your policy includes a copyright injury clause. This coverage can protect you from claims relating to inadvertently copying creative content and advertising ideas. It can also cover trademark infringement. This occurs when you misuse a competitor’s name or brand.