Does General Liability Cover Patent Infringement?
Generally no under standard Coverage B wording, which lists patent infringement in its intellectual-property exclusion. Check any endorsements or separate IP coverage.
The ISO CGL specimen expressly includes patent infringement among the intellectual-property offenses excluded from personal and advertising injury coverage. Its narrow exception concerns specified copyright, trade dress, or slogan infringement in an advertisement, not patent infringement. A patent allegation involving a product, process, or technology should therefore not be assumed covered by the CGL policy.
Read the policy’s complete Coverage B exclusion and any endorsements that modify it. If patent litigation defense is an important concern, ask the broker about separate intellectual-property insurance and examine covered claims, defense-cost provisions, limits, territory, and prior-knowledge exclusions. A technology errors and omissions policy may address a different set of service-related claims and should not be treated as equivalent patent coverage.
Related Coverage
Sources
- Commercial general liability insurance. Insurance Information Institute; What commercial general liability insurance covers; Coverage A, B and C; Additional liability coverages to consider. Accessed 2026-09-25.
- Commercial Insurance Guide. California Department of Insurance; Commercial General Liability; Commercial Automobile; Workers Compensation; Commercial Property. Accessed 2026-09-25.
- Commercial General Liability Coverage Form, CG 00 01 12 07. ISO; specimen hosted by Hiscox; Coverage A I.A pp.1–5; Coverage B I.B pp.6–7; Who Is An Insured II pp.9–10; Limits III p.10; Conditions IV pp.10–12; Definitions V pp.12–16. Accessed 2026-09-25.
