Yesterday, I mentioned the fact that garbage disposal manufacturer Emerson was suing NBC over how its In-Sink-Erator product was portrayed in the pilot of Heroes. They weren't happy when Claire the cheerleader (Hayden Panettiere) sticks her hand in a disposal clearly marked with the ISE brand, and her hand emerges all cut up (never mind that it all quickly returns to normal due to her superpower of indestructability). They wanted all references to their product cut from all replays.

Well, it looks like NBC decided to avoid all the hassle of a lawsuit by cutting the scene from all future broadcasts of the show, including reruns on NBC Universal cable networks. Don Kaplan of the New York Post reports that network officials said that, "While we do not believe there is any legal issue with the episode as originally broadcast, we nonetheless have decided to edit the episode for future uses." Like I said yesterday, it doesn't pay to piss off those small-appliance manufacturers; they seem like they have more lawyers than the tobacco companies.

NBC is finding out that it's not a good idea to piss off the under-sink garbage disposal industry. According to Zap2It, the parent company of disposal manufacturer In-Sink-Erator is suing NBC to block re-airings of the pilot of Heroes. Apparently, they're not happy with the scene where cheerleader Claire tests her power of indestructability by sticking her hand in an In-Sink-Erator disposal and flipping it on. Emerson, the parent company, claims that it casts their disposals in a bad light, telling audiences that a person could actually get injured if they accidentally stuck their hand inside a moving disposal. Yeah, I'm sure those spinning chopping blades are completely safe.

But a reporter for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch got the real scoop from a company spokesman: they're mainly suing because NBC never got permission to use the product name on the show. "It's a trademark thing," the spokesman told the paper. What they're saying is, "Pay us a licensing fee and you can show our product mangle as many hands as you want."

[via Pop Candy]