Oddly, I must've downloaded my iTunes copy before the lawsuit was filed, cause they cut back squarely to the brand name at least 3 times.

This is an unfortunate lawsuit, and a really basic error on the part of the producers. I don't know what other coverage they have of the scene, but I'm not altogether sure how they could re-edit it so it retains the same intent. If she'd intentionally put her hand in the disposal, then that'd be simple. But she's not actually trying to do herself damage here. She drops her ring into the sink and fishes after it without thinking of the possible risk. You need a shot of the ring falling into the drain, yet avoiding showing the name stamped all around the lip of the drain. I honestly don't know how they're going to do that without actually filming something new.

The scene plays so well as it is, real=life safety features notwithstanding, they really need to find a way to keep it intact, even if it means hand-painting out the brand name.

Just to give a bit more to this, here's the text from an interview at comicbookresources.com, in which the casting process was discussed with writer/producers Joe Pokaski and Aron Coleite:

[Quote  by: comicbookresources.com, from an interview on 27 November 2006] In the past week we've learned that George Takei will play the role of Hiro Nakamura's Father in an upcoming episode and that Christopher Eccleston ("Dr. Who") will be featured in an episode this January. First, can you tell us in which episodes we should expect to see these actors? Mr. Nakamura will first show up at the end of Episode 13. And the character will appear again in at least Episode 14. As for Mr. Eccleston, he'll be here soon. You just might not be able to pick him out of the crowd! Secondly, this is just more interesting casting taking place in the show. We've had Richard Roundtree on the show, who played Shaft, the most well known character during the Blaxploitation era of film making. Now we have members of two of the greatest sci-fi franchises of all time. Is this a deliberate move on the part of the show to salute great genre shows/films of the past and present? Should we expect more of this in the future? We use a simple formula when casting: Best actor gets role. Roundtree rocked it, he gets the role. Christopher Eccelston was perfect for the role we were looking for (we don't want to give too much away on this.) As far as Mr Takei, it was serendipity. We had joked about his playing Hiro's Father from the get-go, but it wasn't until he showed up in a casting session and knocked [creator/showrunner] Tim [Kring]'s socks off that the role was his. Like Masi before him, he translated from English to Japanese on the spot, he got what we were trying to get across with the character on his first read. George Takei exceeded our highest expectations. We think he'll do the same for the entire audience.