Samsung Slaps Down LG Over TV Trademark Fail

Trademarks are a big deal in the world of modern TV technology - and few brands work harder to protect their trademarks than Samsung. So it’s no great surprise to learn that Samsung has recently felt the need to issue stern cease and desist words to a rival TV brand. Much more of a surprise, though, given the circumstances involved, is that it’s taken so long for the spat to flare up.

The infringement in question refers to Samsung’s ‘SUHD’ TV trademark, and the recipient of Samsung’s ire is LG Electronics . According to a Samsung spokesman, the problem goes like this: " Samsung Electronics is aware of the wrongful use of the Samsung-filed “SUHD" trademark to promote LG televisions in retail stores in Spain, as well as instances in other markets including Austria, the Netherlands, Singapore, Mexico and Canada, which violate the principles of fair competition.

“We can confirm that Samsung Electronics Spain has officially requested LG Electronics Spain to cease its use of Samsung's "SUHD" trademark on LG televisions in the country.”

In other words, some retailers in a variety of territories - though it was Samsung’s Spanish operation which raised the main complaint - have been abbreviating the ‘Super UHD’ LCD TV designation LG introduced at the 2016 Consumer Electronics Show to ‘SUHD’. Even though Samsung trademarked the SUHD term to cover the proprietary versions of Quantum Dot TV color technology it’s been using in its most highly specified LCD TVs since 2015.

That it should be LG in Samsung’s firing line is again not a great shock given the no-love-lost history between these two arch South Korean rivals. And the infringement itself was frankly all too predictable from the moment LG announced its Super UHD branding exercise. In fact, way back in January both myself in this article and CNET here talked about how LG’s Super UHD move seemed a bit cheeky to say the least.

Hence my earlier point that really the only surprise here is that it’s taken five months for the Super UHD/SUHD situation to become an issue.

Naturally I contacted LG as well as Samsung for a reaction to this story, and LG’s response is important for the way it stresses that the blame for this situation lies with individual retailers, not with LG directly: “LG Electronics does not use, nor has ever used the sign “SUHD” in its advertising or promotional material. LG identified a handful of cases where retailers incorrectly labeled LG’s latest range of TVs in store, which are named LG Super UHD.”

The tone of LG’s response and apparent assurances (reported by the Korea Times) that LG is ‘correcting the misunderstanding’ likely mean that Samsung will stop short of pursuing its rival through the courts over the SUHD issue. If nothing else, though, this shows that in marketing as with so many things in life, if you play with fire you tend to get burned.