Defamation
Privacy
Copyright Infringement
Trademark Infringement
Unauthorized Access
Errors, Omissions, Negligent Acts
Introduction of Malicious Code
Rogue Employee

DEFAMATION

The claimant, an unsuccessful candidate for County Sheriff, alleged that a website owner allowed defamatory postings to be published on its website which caused him to lose the election.

The publisher of an email newsletter faced suit for publishing an allegation that the plaintiff possessed paintings looted by the Nazis during World War II. A disgruntled contractor who had worked on the plaintiff's house sent the newsletter publisher an email message containing the allegations. The publisher distributed the email, which contained the plaintiff's name, address and phone number, to subscribers.

A pathologist posted a message on a bulletin board accusing another university affiliated doctor of receiving kickbacks from an outside company in exchange for his assistance with the company's efforts to obtain a contract to provide pathology services to the university. The university doctor sued and a jury awarded him $675,000.

back to top


PRIVACY

Claimant sued an online magazine alleging it published his picture without permission.

The operator of an online bulletin board filed suit against a couple who posted many rude and threatening messages on the bulletin board. The couple filed a counterclaim alleging the operator's use of cookies was trespass, conversion and an invasion of privacy.

An online retailer attempted to sell its customers' personal information to pay creditors as part of the retailer's bankruptcy. The retailer's privacy policy had stated that personally identifiable information would not be sold. Several parties threatened to sue on privacy grounds.

A company faced a class action lawsuit arising out of the company's jukebox software, which allowed a user to store recorded music files on his/her computer. The class alleged the software secretly recorded the titles of the CDs and individual music tracks a user played on his/her computer and sent the data back to the company, which then used the information to create a detailed profile of the user's musical tastes.

back to top


COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT

A distributor of software products acquired another company that sold software pursuant to a license from plaintiff; the distributor continued to sell this software after the acquisition. The plaintiff sued for copyright infringement, alleging that the distributor's continued sale of the software violated the terms of the license.

An online service that provided music for users to download for a fee was sued by another company that allegedly owned rights to certain music. It sued for copyright infringement, alleging that the service sold unauthorized songs on the website. The service had obtained a license for the music from a third party who claimed to have the rights to transfer, but not from the claimant.

Owners of video footage sued a website owner for copyright infringement, alleging the website streamed the footage for webcast on the site without permission. There was an issue about whether the party from whom the website owner had obtained the footage actually owned the rights in the video footage to transfer.

A company created and licensed software that enabled golf courses to advertise and display their courses online. Another company alleged the software was substantially similar in function and appearance to its software.

A company obtained articles from various print sources and sold the articles to online archive websites. Free-lance authors sued the archive websites, alleging that they had given permission for the use of their articles in print format only, not for use in an electronic format. The archive websites in turn notified the company that provided the articles that they would seek indemnity if found liable to the authors.

back to top


TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENT

Plaintiff sued an online service provider for trademark infringement. Plaintiff alleged that the provider's domain name violated trademark laws because plaintiff owned the trademark and was in the business of selling apparel, which was also one function of the provider's website.

A website provided information related to residential real estate sales. Another company that published a traditional print magazine with the same name used by the website and which also related to residential real estate sales, sued for trademark infringement and unfair competition.

A business that used a competitor's trademarked name as a metatag on the business website was sued by the competitor for trademark infringement and unfair competition.

back to top


UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS

A hacker infiltrated an online shopping website and stole 300,000 customer credit card numbers. The website faced claims from the customers for unauthorized charges made on the credit cards.

Companies that unknowingly spread a worm, virus or other corrupting file via email to third parties could face liability from those third parties for revenues lost as a result of the virus overloading the third parties' computer network.

back to top


ERRORS, OMISSIONS, NEGLIGENT ACTS

A website owner sold an email list to a company that owned a different website. The company sued, claiming the list had wrong addresses, duplications, and contained names of people who did not want to receive information from the company.

A company operated a website on which it conducted automobile auctions. A purchaser of a vehicle sued alleging the photo showing the car he bought was misleading and the person he spoke to about the car made misrepresentations.

A company that bought banner ad space on a portal website sued the portal operator. The company alleged the portal failed to make necessary changes to the banner ads, and that the failure to make changes had reduced the effectiveness of the ads.

A cosmetics company sued a search engine alleging that the search engine engaged in trademark infringement and unfair competition by selling banner advertising to another, competing cosmetics company. The search engine sold the competitor a banner ad on the results page that came up when a user entered the first company's name as a search term.

A company provided web site design and consulting services to a client. The parties eventually decided to end their relationship and the company sent its client a letter requesting payment of bills totaling $750,000. The client responded by alleging that the websites designed by the company had architectural and performance issues and demanded $9 million to settle its claims.

A client sued a website developer alleging that its website crashed and blamed the crash on the developer's failure to competently provide services.

A company provided website construction and maintenance as well as software for e-commerce applications. A client sued alleging their website, launched with the company's assistance, did not function as promised.

back to top

INTRODUCTION OF MALICIOUS CODE

A computer virus was introduced into the company's computer system and from there into software installed on the company's product. The virus was not discovered until after the product shipped. The virus caused damage to the product purchasers and resulted in a loss to the company totaling approximately $14 million.

back to top


ROGUE EMPLOYEE

A disgruntled employee corrupted data in the company's system that was used to upgrade a product already on the market. The corruption caused damage to clients trying to upgrade the product as well as delays, cost overruns, etc., resulting in a loss of $50 million.

back to top

*These claims are examples of those encountered in the types of businesses insured by Media/Professional Insurance.

Some are claims we've handled; in others, we were not directly involved. Coverage for these claims is not to be inferred from this list but must always be determined in reference to a particular insurance policy, which is the controlling document, as well as the facts and circumstances of each claim and applicable law.