Quickly remove badge from app

Is it possible to quickly remove a notification badge from an app in the Dock? I'm looking for a solution faster than opening the app itself and performing whatever task is required to mark the notification as read.

In some apps, clearing the badge is quick and easy, but others require a bit more persuasion or actual action. For example, the App Store badge is useful as it tells me that updates are available, but once I'm aware of this, I don't need the badge any more. Unfortunately, clearing the badge requires installing/ignoring the updates, which I may not want to do immediately. A quick way to remove just the badge would be very useful.

I would prefer something scriptable, but GUI scripting is not out of the scope.