Liability
- Damage to third parties
- Employers' liability
- Care, custody and control as an extension
Infringement · defence · enforcement
Insuring trade marks and intellectual property
With intellectual property the risk runs in two directions: you can be held liable because you are infringing, and you can have to incur costs because someone else is infringing your right.
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Deze pagina in het Nederlands: Merkenrecht en intellectueel eigendom verzekeren.
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- We compare the offerings of several insurers
- An adviser checks whether the cover suits your activities
- We arrange the switch, including cancellation
A premium indication, not personal advice. Prefer to talk it through? Call 072 - 509 24 56.
In brief
A trade mark, design, trade name or copyright is a right to prohibit. That means nothing happens until someone invokes it — and that can be against you or by you. The insurance question differs in each direction. If a claim is made against you, it is a matter of liability: someone alleges that your name, packaging, design or text comes too close to theirs and demands that you stop, hand over profits and pay compensation. If you bring the claim yourself, no liability is involved, but proceedings that you have to fund before anything comes back.
For the first direction you look at the liability section. Unintentional infringement is sometimes insured, but then as a named extension with its own limit; deliberate infringement, or infringement whose risk you knowingly accepted, is always excluded. For the second direction there is a legal expenses module for intellectual property, which carries the costs of enforcement, normally with a waiting period, a threshold amount and a requirement that the right was already registered when you took out the cover.
The largest item is on neither policy. If you have to abandon a brand name, a change of name follows: new packaging, printed matter, domains, signage, vehicle livery and rebuilding your visibility online. That rebranding is a business cost, not damage caused by a third party. A search of the registers before you start using a name is therefore the most effective measure there is — cheaper than any policy that comes afterwards.
Trade mark law and intellectual property: what is covered?
The structure of the cover in three parts, with an overview per situation below.
Assets and continuity
Business contents, goods and lost turnover during downtime.
- Business contents at replacement value as new
- Goods at cost price
- Business interruption or additional costs
Staff
Sickness absence, accidents and the traffic risk.
- Continued pay for 104 weeks
- Group personal accident
- WEGAS for traffic risks
What is covered
| Situation | AVB | BAV | Cyber |
|---|---|---|---|
| Injury to a visitor or customer | Yes | No | No |
| Damage to a client's property | Sometimes | No | No |
| Financial loss caused by an advisory or calculation error | No | Yes | No |
| Downtime after a ransomware attack | No | No | Yes |
| Data breach involving personal data | No | Sometimes | Yes |
| Damage to property in your care | No | No | No |
This overview is general in nature and is not personal advice. What is actually covered, including exclusions, limits and the excess, is set out in the policy conditions and the insurance card (verzekeringskaart) of the insurer; you receive both before you take out cover. Taking out cover without advice? Then read what execution only means for you.
Where things go wrong in practice
Four points that make the difference between a policy that pays out and one that does not.
A search beforehand is the only measure that really counts
Before you start using a name, logo or design, have the trade mark and trade name registers searched for earlier rights in the classes in which you are active. A superficial search for identical names is not enough; what matters is similar signs for similar goods. Anyone who skips this and later receives a letter before action is also in a weaker position with his insurer: knowledge of an earlier right makes the infringement culpable and therefore uninsured.
Enforcement costs money first and only pays later
If you see an infringement, it starts with a letter before action, usually followed by interim proceedings. The costs order in IP cases can cover the actual legal fees, but you advance them and you carry the risk if the court finds your right weaker than you thought. An IP legal expenses module takes those costs over within a limit. Note the waiting period: disputes whose seeds were sown before the start date are excluded.
The value of the right itself cannot be insured
If you lose a trade mark because the registration is cancelled or revoked for non-use, that is not damage within the meaning of a policy but the loss of an asset. The same applies to lost turnover because a competitor copied your design and served the market. Insurers cover costs and liability, not the economic value of your portfolio. So keep an eye yourself on your renewal dates and your evidence of use.
Set the rights out watertight in your contracts
Many disputes come not from a competitor but from a supplier: a designer who retained the copyright, an agency that supplied images under a limited licence, a developer who used code under a tainted open source licence. Without a written assignment the right stays with the creator. Include an assignment, an indemnity and a statement about third-party rights in every commission; in claims about design and development that is the first document in the file.
What does your premium depend on?
- Size of the portfolio — The number of trade marks, designs and trade names you actively use determines how many disputes can arise in theory.
- Territory of registration — A Benelux registration carries a different litigation risk from an EU trade mark or from registrations outside the EU, where enforcement costs more.
- Sector and susceptibility to copying — Consumer products, fashion, packaging and design see considerably more infringement cases than business services.
- Register search carried out — If you can show that you had earlier rights checked before you began using the name, that lowers the risk of a culpable infringement.
- Limit and threshold chosen — With a legal expenses module, the cost limit per dispute and the minimum value of a case have the strongest influence on the premium.
- Current and concluded disputes — Letters before action, oppositions and proceedings in the past all count, even where they ended in your favour.
Insurers weigh these details differently. That is why comparing pays off.
How we arrange it
- You request a quoteWe take stock of your activities, turnover and wishes.
- We compareseveral insurers, on premium as well as conditions.
- You receive a proposalWith an explanation of the differences and the exclusions.
- We arrange the switchIncluding cancellation, so there is no gap in cover.
9.5New policy
9.8Claims handling
Customers rate our service on four aspects: personal service, service delivery, availability and the outcome. The reviews are collected and published by NH1816 and come from customers who have actually taken out a policy with Finass Advies B.V. or reported a claim.
Frequently asked questions
The questions we are asked most often about this.
Is a claim that I am infringing a trade mark insured?
Unintentional infringement can appear as a named extension on a liability policy, with its own limit for compensation and defence costs. If you knew of the earlier right or knowingly took the risk, it is excluded. This cover is not included as standard; check whether intellectual property is expressly named in your policy or in fact excluded.
Who pays the costs if I bring a claim against an infringer?
That is enforcement, not liability. An ordinary public and employers' liability policy does nothing there. You need a legal expenses module for intellectual property. Allow for a waiting period after the start date, a threshold below which a case is not taken on, and the requirement that your right was already registered when the cover was taken out.
Does a policy pay the costs of a change of name?
No. New packaging, printed matter, domain names, signage and rebuilding your visibility online are your own business costs and not damage caused by a third party. In practice this is often the largest item in an infringement case. That is precisely why a register search before you start using a name is the wisest investment.
Am I covered if my designer never assigned the rights?
Then there is no question of cover but a contractual problem: without a written assignment the copyright stays with the creator and you use the work under a licence that may be limited. Include an assignment clause and an indemnity for third-party rights in every commission. An insurer does not repair a missing assignment of rights.
Ready to compare?
Request a quote without obligation. We will look at which insurer best matches your activities and your risk.
Prefer to call? 072 - 509 24 56, weekdays 09:00–17:00.
Claim on the road? Emergency line 06 - 55 20 40 72.
About our service
Finass Verzekert is a trading name of Finass Advies B.V. We advise on and arrange non-life insurance on the basis of an objective analysis of several insurers, and receive commission for this from the insurer, which is included in the premium. You pay no separate advice fee. Before you take out cover, we establish your wishes and needs.
You will find our licence, KvK and Kifid details and our complaints procedure at the foot of every page.
This page was written and checked by an adviser at Finass Verzekert. Last updated on .
The information on this page is general in nature and is not personal advice.