Personal and advertising injury is the half of a flooring contractor’s general liability that answers for harm done with words and images rather than tools: libel and slander, invasion of privacy, using another’s advertising idea, and infringing copyright, trade dress or slogan in your advertisement. Website photos, review replies and yard signs are where it starts.
Coverage B in the standard form: a short list of offenses
Coverage B is an offense-based grant, not an accident-based one. Under the standard ISO form as commonly written, the Commercial General Liability Coverage Form (CG 00 01 04 13, the edition we read), the insuring agreement reads: “We will pay those sums that the insured becomes legally obligated to pay as damages because of ‘personal and advertising injury’ to which this insurance applies.” It adds: “We will have the right and duty to defend the insured against any ‘suit’ seeking those damages.”
The trigger is the offense, not an occurrence. The form says the coverage applies to injury “caused by an offense arising out of your business but only if the offense was committed in the ‘coverage territory’ during the policy period.” The act behind a Coverage B claim is often deliberate: you chose to post the photo.
The definition sets out the offenses. It begins: “‘Personal and advertising injury’ means injury, including consequential ‘bodily injury’, arising out of one or more of the following offenses:” false arrest, detention or imprisonment; malicious prosecution; wrongful eviction or entry; publication that slanders or libels a person or organization or disparages their goods, products or services; publication that violates a person’s right of privacy; “The use of another’s advertising idea in your ‘advertisement’”; and “Infringing upon another’s copyright, trade dress or slogan in your ‘advertisement’”.
A claim outside that list is not a Coverage B claim; injury and physical damage belong to the other half of the form, on the general liability page.
What the form counts as your advertisement
Two of the offenses only apply in your advertisement, so the definition does real work. The form reads: “‘Advertisement’ means a notice that is broadcast or published to the general public or specific market segments about your goods, products or services for the purpose of attracting customers or supporters.”
For a flooring business, that reaches yard signs, truck wraps, mailers and paid social posts. The form adds that “Notices that are published include material placed on the Internet or on similar electronic means of communication”, so a social feed counts.
Websites get a narrower rule: “Regarding web sites, only that part of a web site that is about your goods, products or services for the purposes of attracting customers or supporters is considered an advertisement.” A project gallery or a services page built to win jobs is likely advertising. A careers page or a supplier login may not be.
Whether a given page fits is a wording and facts question; the safe habit is to source everything customer-facing as if a claim will test it.
Project photos you did not take
The most common Coverage B problem for a trade contractor is a photo: a manufacturer’s room scene, a stock image or a competitor’s finished floor dropped into a gallery.
Ownership starts on the shutter click. The U.S. Copyright Office’s explanation of copyright says copyright “protects original works of authorship as soon as an author fixes the work in a tangible form of expression.” It continues: “Once you create an original work and fix it, like taking a photograph, writing a poem or blog, or recording a new song, you are the author and the owner.” Among the owner’s exclusive rights is the right to “Display the work publicly” for a pictorial work. Photos your own employees take on the job are a different case: “works created by an employee within the scope of employment are owned by the employer”. Photos from anyone else depend on the agreement.
These claims can escalate. The Office’s copyright questions page notes that “Registered works may be eligible for statutory damages and attorney’s fees in successful litigation.”
The form answers in two places. Copyright infringement in your advertisement is a listed offense. The intellectual property exclusion then removes infringement of “copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret or other intellectual property rights”, with an exception: “However, this exclusion does not apply to infringement, in your ‘advertisement’, of copyright, trade dress or slogan.” A photo used outside an advertisement sits under the exclusion.
Real-World Scenario: A flooring contractor rebuilds its website and fills the gallery with interiors pulled from search results, meaning to swap in its own job photos later. Months on, a photographer’s representative writes claiming infringement and demanding payment. The contractor’s questions are whether the gallery counts as advertising under the policy, whether an endorsement narrowed Coverage B, and whether the insurer will defend. The images come down that day.
Customer homes, faces and before-and-after posts
A job post showing the inside of someone’s home is the next exposure. The offense list includes “Oral or written publication, in any manner, of material that violates a person’s right of privacy”. A house number or a homeowner’s face can turn a proud before-and-after into a complaint.
Advertising rules point the same way. The FTC’s endorsement guides, in the federal regulations, state that “Verbal statements, tags in social media posts, demonstrations, depictions of the name, signature, likeness or other identifying personal characteristics of an individual, and the name or seal of an organization can be endorsements.” They also say that “Endorsements must reflect the honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experience of the endorser.” Tagging or quoting a customer is an endorsement question too.
The practical rule is written permission. Add a photo and testimonial release to your contract or completion sign-off, and keep it with the job file. The residential flooring page covers the rest of a homeowner job’s paperwork.
Online reviews: your replies and the reviews you ask for
A public reply to a bad review is a publication, so it sits where the defamation offense sits. The form lists publication “of material that slanders or libels a person or organization or disparages a person’s or organization’s goods, products or services”. Calling a reviewer a liar or a scammer invites that claim.
The exclusions take out the knowing version. Coverage B does not apply to publication “if done by or at the direction of the insured with knowledge of its falsity”, nor to injury caused “with the knowledge that the act would violate the rights of another and would inflict ‘personal and advertising injury’”. The facts of the reply decide which side a claim falls on.
The FTC’s consumer reviews rule adds a regulatory layer. It treats as unfair or deceptive a public false accusation in response to a consumer review, made knowing it was false or with reckless disregard, in an attempt to get the review removed. The same rule reaches writing or buying fake reviews, paying for reviews of a particular sentiment and owner or manager reviews without disclosure. Asking all your customers to post a review is treated differently.
Enforcement is real: a state attorney general sued a home improvement contractor over fake online reviews, describing reviews posted as though they come from consumers “but are in fact created by the entity seeking support.” Coverage B is written around damages claims for its listed offenses; a regulator’s action is a different question, and the wording decides it. The New York page covers flooring insurance in that state.
Manufacturer names, logos and certified-installer badges
A manufacturer’s logo on your truck or website is someone else’s trademark, and Coverage B mostly steps aside from it. The USPTO’s trademark basics explain that “A trademark can be any word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination of these things that identifies your goods or services.” Rights come from use: “You become a trademark owner as soon as you start using your trademark with your goods or services.”
The federal trademark statute, in the government’s published copy, reaches use that “is likely to cause confusion, or to cause mistake, or to deceive as to the affiliation, connection, or association of such person with another person”. An unearned certified-installer badge is that kind of claim.
Under the standard form, trademark sits inside the intellectual property exclusion, and the exception keeps only copyright, trade dress and slogan in. A separate exclusion removes injury “arising out of the unauthorized use of another’s name or product in your e-mail address, domain name or metatag, or any other similar tactics to mislead another’s potential customers.” A domain or search tag built on a manufacturer’s name is outside Coverage B.
Saying truthfully which products you install is a different use, and the statute treats some descriptive and comparative uses differently. Ask the program and counsel before a badge goes on anything, whether you install tile and stone or carpet.
Ad promises, prices and competitor comparisons
Coverage B is not warranty coverage for your own work. The form excludes injury “arising out of the failure of goods, products or services to conform with any statement of quality or performance made in your ‘advertisement’.” A floor sold as waterproof or squeak-free that fails is a workmanship question; the general liability page’s FAQ explains how the policy reads a redo. A price printed wrong is excluded too, as “the wrong description of the price of goods, products or services stated in your ‘advertisement’.”
Comparisons with competitors cut the other way. Disparaging another business’s goods, products or services is a listed offense, so a comparison ad or a jab at a competitor’s installers can draw a covered claim, subject to the knowing-falsity exclusion. The trademark statute also reaches anyone who “in commercial advertising or promotion, misrepresents the nature, characteristics, qualities, or geographic origin of his or her or another person’s goods, services, or commercial activities”. Keep comparisons truthful and provable.
Copying a competitor’s slogan or look is the last case. The Copyright Office lists “titles, names, short phrases, and slogans” among things that are not creative enough for copyright, but the form names slogan and trade dress in your advertisement as their own offense and keeps them in.
Occupied units, accusations and crew posts
Some Coverage B offenses happen on the job rather than in marketing. Wrongful entry is listed as entry into or invasion of “the right of private occupancy of a room, dwelling or premises that a person occupies, committed by or on behalf of its owner, landlord or lessor”. A crew sent by a property manager into an occupied apartment fits that shape; confirm notice and access in writing before you go in.
False arrest, detention and malicious prosecution are rarer. Accusing someone on a jobsite of theft and having them held is how a flooring business meets them, and the criminal-acts exclusion sits close by.
Crew posts are the newest exposure. Employees are insureds “but only for acts within the scope of their employment by you or while performing duties related to the conduct of your business.” An independent installer posting on a personal account is a different case, discussed in who is an insured on a flooring contractor’s policy.
Exclusions, timing and the separate limit
A few more exclusions shape what Coverage B carries. It excludes material “whose first publication took place before the beginning of the policy period”, so an old gallery photo still live may fall outside a new policy; keep coverage continuous, a point occurrence vs claims-made policies for flooring contractors develops. It excludes liability assumed in a contract, except liability you would have without the contract, which matters in co-op advertising and manufacturer dealer agreements; the commercial flooring page covers contract promises.
The form also excludes claims under “The Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), including any amendment of or addition to such law”, so text and call campaigns sit outside. Another exclusion removes insureds whose business is advertising or designing websites for others; a flooring contractor is not that, and the form adds that “the placing of frames, borders or links, or advertising, for you or others anywhere on the Internet, is not by itself, considered the business of advertising, broadcasting, publishing or telecasting.”
Coverage B carries its own limit: it “is the most we will pay under Coverage B for the sum of all damages because of all ‘personal and advertising injury’ sustained by any one person or organization.” The general liability limits section explains how limits are set, and a professional-services exclusion is covered in our professional liability post. Ask whether your umbrella follows Coverage B.
The flooring contractor insurance hub shows how this coverage fits the full program, and about us explains who reads your policy. If your marketing uses outside photos, logos or reviews, send us your forms schedule.