I think the brand at issue was the In-Sink-Erator, the most common brand in the United States. I don’t recall whether the manufacturer actually filed a lawsuit, but they have complained about it and have asked NBC to obliterate their visible logo.
If In-Sink-Erator has a claim, it would be a defamation claim – they would have to show that (1) The program claims (or implies) that you can mangle your hand badly by sticking it in an operating In-Sink-Erator, (2) That this claim is likely to believed by viewers, and (3) that it’s a false claim.
In other words, if it’s true that you can mangle your hand by sticking it in an operating In-Sink-Erator, then there’s no actionable claim. That doesn’t mean, though, that NBC won’t give in just to avoid legal action.
Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman have over 30 years of special effects experience between them. On their Discovery Channel hit television show, they use their knowledge of engineering and explosives to put urban myths to the test: could a fire-fighting plane really scoop up a scuba diver? Can you really escape from Alcatraz across the bay on a raft made in prison? Just how explosive is explosive decompression in an airplane? Now they’re coming to MIT, probably to cause a ruckus. Check it out!
TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE SOON for purchase online with a credit card or at the ticket table before any LSC show. Prices are as follows:
MIT Student - Front Section $8.00
MIT Student - Back Section $6.00
MIT Community (non-student) - Front Section $12.00
MIT Community (non-student) - Back Section $10.00
Non-MIT Student - Back Section $10.00
General Admission - Back Section $14.00
I caught part of a behind-the-scnes show for a cooking show (Rachael Ray, I believe) and they were interviewing the person whose job it is to paint over the labels of all the food products used on the show. The goal is to make them look like plausibly real labels, while not actually resembling anything copyrighted or trademarked.
After seeing that, the fake-ness of the labels really jumps out at you.
As I suggested before, neither copyrights nor trademarks is an issue. If they use a product or comment on a product (whether approvingly or disapprovingly), they’re free to show it if they want to.
They might not choose to because (1) they don’t want to do inadvertent commercials, (2) they’re afraid of possible defamation (although this is highly unlikely if not nearly impossible in a cooking show), or (3) they don’t want to scare away current or future sponsors by featuring competing products.