welllllll…
I can see why. Not for the apparent reason (“We’re shocked - SHOCKED that a cute chick gets a mangled hand from our product consisting of whirly blades!”) but from a much more boring, mundane one.
In order to keep a trademark on a trademarked name, you must “vigorously defend” the trademark every single time you see a possible violation. If you don’t, you will lose it. Thus, while Disney is not really all that concerned with my local daycare using a picture of Mickey Mouse on their sign causing massive brand confusion, they have to at least send them a nasty letter telling him to cut it out, or file a lawsuit they know they’re going to lose. It keeps their trademark safe for when, say, a national retail store uses a picture of Mickey Mouse in their ad - a level of exposure which really is big enough to cause brand confusion and make it look like Disney is endorsing the sale. If they don’t defend their trademark against the little guys, the bigger guys can have a good case that they don’t really care about their trademark and shouldn’t be able to keep it.
This is why brand names are supposed to be obscured on TV unless you’ve gotten prior clearance (or, even better, money for product placement) from the holder of the trademarked name or logo.
What I want to know is how people injure themselves on dishwashers. 
Uh-oh. I wonder if KFC will sue because that stick they pulled out of Claire’s neck looked like a chicken leg.
Yes, but this has nothing to do with a trademark violation, unless Emerson Electric is asserting that somebody slapped their name on some other kind of garbage disposal.
Old news. We talked about this back in the first chapter thread.
There is no conceivable trademark violation here, so this is irrelevant.
Completely untrue. There is no rule that says brand names are supposed to be obscured on TV. (The BBC has a policy not to show brand names, but that has nothing to do with trademark law.) No one needs prior clearance just to show a branded product on TV.
Emerson makes the In-Sink-Erator, a garbage disposal device, which is basically a chopper just inside the opening of the drain. It chops up any food particles, to prevent blockage of the plumbing. In the show, the character stuck her hand in the drain and her fingers were mangled by the blades of the In-Sink-Erator.
Since you asked, an ex-boyfriend of mine once injured himself on a dishwasher. The door was open, he lost his balance, fell backward and slashed his arm open on a knife that was inside.
No, no, no, I understand that. The linked article says: “But [the spokesman for the garbage disposal company] also pointed out that, according to data from the government’s Consumer Products Safety Commission, you are actually ten times more likely to get injured by your dishwasher than your garbage disposal.” (bolding mine) I understand how people are injured by garbage disposals, I don’t understand how they’re injured by dishwashers.
Specifically, they are suing for “unfair competition, trademark infringement, and trademark dilution.” NBC has already removed their name from further broadcasts and promised not to show it again. I don’t think I’m as wrong as y’all are making out.
Isn’t that being injured by the knife?
They may be suing for “unfair competition, trademark infringement, and trademark dilution,” but that doesn’t mean that they have a case. As far as I’m concerned, this looks like a classic example of a nuisance lawsuit.
You don’t have to win the case to protect your trademark, only file suit. People do this all the time without expecting to win. My husband’s biggest job at work for a Patent Attorney is sending off these form letters that they fully expect to be ignored. As long as they can file a copy of the letter as being sent, they’ve “vigorously defended”* their client’s patent or trademark.
*I keep putting that in quotes because it’s lawyerspeak. Google it and see how routine it is.
Well, in my apartment, it usually happens when I’m searching through the cupboard underneath the sink for the Brillo[sup]TM[/sup] pads, and the phone rings and startles me so I straighten up, and I karang my head against it.
Wait, that’s how I injure myself with a garbage disposal.
I injure myself with the dishwasher when I walk into the kitchen in the morning with the intention of making coffee cake, and in order to preheat the oven, I have to move the dishwasher out of the way (it’s a portable dishwasher, btw), and I roll it over my naked toes.
Also when I try pulling dishes out when they’re still hot from the dry cycle.
It hasn’t occurred to me yet to file a product liability lawsuit against Kenmore, Emerson, or [whatever company distributes] Brillo[sup]TM[/sup].
So are they suing because the hand went into the disposal…or because the disposal DIDN’T cut her hand to smitherines?
The knife wasn’t holding itself up vertically in a manner that would cause injury if someone fell on it, the dishwasher was. Dishwashers have a place designated to hold cutlery in a vertical position, cutlery supported in that manner is more dangerous than cutlery left on the countertop.
You can also trip over the door, and pinch your finger when you close it.
Well, my guess would be that they trip over the open door.
No, they’re suing because she was able to get better. Makes it look like they put out a shoddy garbage disposal that can’t even manage to permanently maim a superhero.
You can also bark your shins on the open door. Seriously, garbage disposals are scary and most people treat them with respect. Dishwashers seem harmless. They’re handled all the time. So the wariness level is lower. oh, and sometimes things break during the cycle and you’re picking glass shards out of it.
Although I can’t remember being injured by either a dishwasher or a garbage disposal.
GE (parent company of NBC) makes garbage disposers. The show portrayed a competitor’s product as dangerous (mangling the character’s hand)- that’s where the “unfair competition” claim comes from.
If they are going to portray a product in a bad light, they should use their own brands or obscure the branding, instead of showing a competitor’s product in an identifiable way.
One SDMB member once posted a thread about his dishwasher almost killing him.
It seems that a plastic spatula made its way down to a heating element and filled his house with toxic smoke. He barely made it out alive.
For awhile I had a dent in my shin, which I thought was going to be permanent, because I kept banging into the door of the dishwasher.
Yeah, I know–shut the dishwasher! Watch where you’re going!
Got a new dishwasher with a lower door and eventually the dent from the old one went away.