Would it be inappropriate use of authorship mark-up for a directory profile?

[designquotes]

If a business creates a profile in a directory and adds their Google+ page, and they add the domain/profile URL as a publisher they contribute to, is that a legit use?

They are the author of the business profile, but it's not an article.

[FedeEinhorn]

There's nothing "against" doing it, however, what's the added value? If it's a company profile then the author is the company and not actually a person. Authorship markup was introduced for people, not companies.

[CustomButtonCo.com]

No that would be against G+ TOS. You would need to use the rel=publisher tag instead and link to the business G+ page.