![\"\"](\"https:\/\/trademarks.harnessip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/Crock-Pot.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThis is probably as good as the manufacturer could do.\u00a0 This unfavorable depiction is not trademark infringement or even dilution.\u00a0 The use, while unfortunate from the trademark owner’s standpoint, is protected by the story tellers first amendment rights.\u00a0 While a disclaimer would be a nice gesture, it is not a legal\u00a0 requirement.<\/p>\n
Other trademark owners facing abuse or misuse of their products have similarly found that there is not much legally that the brand owner can do.\u00a0 Several years ago, the Emerson Electric, the manufacturer of Insinkerator waste disposers was upset when the heroine of the TV series Heroes (also by NBC) deliberately put her hand in their waste disposal to demonstrate her recuperative power.\u00a0 Emerson sued<\/a>\u00a0to mixed public reaction, and while it did get a concession by NBC to edit the depiction going forward, it eventually dismissed the case.<\/p>\n Many years ago Caterpillar, upset with the use of its bulldozers by the villains in the movie George of the Jungle II to destroy the jungle, sued Disney.\u00a0 However, the suit did not get far.\u00a0 See,\u00a0Caterpillar Inc. v. Walt Disney Co., 287 F. Supp. 2d 913 (C.D. Ill. 2003)<\/em>.\u00a0 Around that same time, Wham-O, maker of the iconic Slip ‘n’ Slide, sued Paramount Pictures for the misuse of the toy by the title character in the film \u201cDickie Roberts: Former Child Star,\u201d and didn’t get very far.\u00a0\u00a0See, Wham-O, Inc. v. Paramount Pictures Corp., 2003 WL 2300526 (N.D. Cal. 9\/29\/03)<\/em>.<\/p>\n Trademark protection offers scant protection when bad things happen to good brands.\u00a0 Trademark owners are best off fighting bad percent at the court of public opinion, rather than a court of law.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The was a lot of discussion recently about the episode of\u00a0 NBC’s This is Us, which implicated a faulty switch on a Crockpot\u00ae in the death of the family’s beloved patriarch, Jack Pearson.\u00a0 The manufacturers opened a Twitter account to … Continue reading