I know how much people here love their frivolous lawsuit stories so
here's another!
Quote:
"Heroes" Lawsuit Down the Drain
Hopefully you got a good glimpse last week of the teenage girl's hand being mangled by a garbage disposal, because you might not get to see it again.
Disposal maker Emerson filed a federal lawsuit Monday against NBC to prevent the network from re-airing the pilot episode of the new drama Heroes, which featured one of the title characters demonstrating her superhuman healing prowess by sticking her hand down the drain.
Emerson, obviously concerned that the series' 14.1 million viewers last week were busy looking at the disposal brand instead of Claire the cheerleader's bloody hand, claimed in its petition that NBC Universal Television Studios didn't have the right to show the St. Louis-area company's In-Sink-Erator product and is looking to prohibit any further use by the network of the Emerson trademark.
And the minds behind Heroes are going to get about 20 more chances to integrate daily household appliances into their storyline. NBC has ordered up a full season of the show for the 2006-07 season, rewarding its strong performance out of the gate.
The lawsuit further stated that the scene "casts the disposer in an unsavory light, irreparably tarnishing the product" by suggesting that the appliance "will cause debilitating and severe injuries, including the loss of fingers, in the event consumers were to accidentally insert their hand into one."
Not that Emerson is saying you should try this at home or anything. And neither is Heroes, for that matter...
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What's not said here but mentioned in
another, more verbose, article is that Emerson is also seeking pecuniary damages because NBC "casts the disposer in an unsavory light..."
Can companies sue you for depicting their products, at least, vaguely accurately? I mean, can baseball bat companies sue movies that depict people getting beat up with their bats?
NBC does plan to edit the scene in further broadcasts of the episode, including the DVDs, but I wonder how they will do it. I would recommend just digitally editing out the name of the company but I have a feeling this won't be good enough for Emerson...