• CNNMoney, Wednesday, October 18, 2006 12:15 PM

NBC is being sued by a garbage-disposal maker that claims the network's "Heroes" show casts its product in a negative light. In the first episode of the hit program, a cheerleader blessed with the power of indestructibility sticks her hand into a garbage disposal and gets it mangled. Then, her hand heals. The brand name of the machine is visible in the scene: InSinkErator.

Emerson Electric, which makes it, isn't happy--so it filed a suit in a U.S. district court in St. Louis against NBC Universal. In it, Emerson claims that NBC used its trademark without consent, and that the show "implies an incorrect and dangerous design for a food waste disposer." The company also says the depiction of the InSinkErator "casts the disposer in an unsavory light, irreparably tarnishing the product."

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