Courts took up some interesting insurance questions this past month. Here’s some we address in our June Insurance Update. When a government sponsored cyberattack infects computers worldwide, does the war exclusion apply? ...more
ADVERTISING INJURIES: DEFAMATION AND RIGHT OF PUBLICITY - Advertising injuries occur when a business injures another party during the course of advertising its products or services. The Insurance Services Office (ISO)...more
Second Circuit Holds That General Contractor’s “True Excess” Policy Covers Owner Before Owner’s Primary Policy Because Of General Contractor’s Contractual Indemnity Obligation to Owner- The Long Island Railroad on behalf...more
The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, applying Texas law, held that an insurer owed a duty to defend its insured in an underlying litigation stemming from a payment card breach because it found that the...more
The deluge of lawsuits brought under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA), 740 ILCS 14 et seq. over the past several years has presented a challenge to companies operating in Illinois. Not surprisingly,...more
In The Travelers Indemnity Company v. Lean & Local LLC, Travelers sought a declaration that it did not owe its insureds indemnity or a defense. Judge Green granted Travelers summary judgment. The claims asserted against the...more
The US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a dental product manufacturer’s suit against its insurer, holding that the IP exclusion in the policy expressly excluded the trademark claims over which...more
In a case of nationwide first impression, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled in favor of K&L Gates LLP’s client, Vibram Corporation (“Vibram”), by holding that allegations regarding Vibram’s use of a deceased...more
Recently the Eleventh Circuit spent a lot of ink discussing how the marketing and sale of sashimi-grade tuna is affected when myoglobin reacts with oxygen to produce oxymyoglobin, and with carbon monoxide to form...more
On November 17, 2017, a U.S. district court in Florida narrowly construed personal and advertising injury coverage for data-breach claims under a commercial general liability policy. In Innovak International, Inc., v. The...more
August 2017 In Short The Situation: Reversing a pair of federal district court rulings, the Fifth and Ninth Circuits have held that insurers must defend commercial general liability policyholders in advertising injuries...more
On April 11, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit rendered one of the first appellate-level decisions dealing with insurance coverage for a cyber event. The Fourth Circuit confirmed that a commercial...more
“Advertising injury” can be tricky. In theory, the term applies to the type of harm that can be inflicted through advertising media—defamation, disparagement, violation of privacy rights or misappropriation of intellectual...more
New York Federal Court Rejects Insurer’s Request for Recoupment - Why it matters: The federal court, applying New York law, held that an energy drink manufacturer’s advertising coverage claim—arising from underlying...more
Watch out for those Employment Practice Liability “EPL” exclusions. The courts have routinely upheld these exclusions now explicitly added to both the Coverage A (bodily injury and property damage) and the Coverage B...more
Advertising injury liability coverage offered under commercial general liability (“CGL”) policies is aimed at protecting companies against claims, often brought by competitors, alleging harm by purportedly derogatory...more
Hartford v. Swift imposes “specificity” requirements that may provide comfort to companies facing disparagement claims while requiring careful navigation to trigger CGL policies. The California Supreme Court recently...more
Three Wins and A New Rule - In this edition of the Manatt newsletter, we take a look at several new cases that examine an array of important insurance issues. First, though, we report an important victory for...more