Liability insurance won’t cover a West Palm Beach-based company’s legal fees for the year and a half it waited to tell its insurer it had been sued, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled.

EmbroidMe.com Inc. racked up more than $400,000 in legal fees defending itself against a copyright infringement lawsuit in the Southern District of Florida, all before telling its insurer about the litigation. The defense work in that case was done by McHale & Slavin in Palm Beach Gardens.