”Big brother” Samsung is not satisfied with ”little brother” LG using its ”SUHD” branding to sell LCD TVs. LG has promised to stop but it is not hard to guess why LG is doing it. 

”SUHD” vs. ”Super UHD”
Last year, Samsung launched its first TVs under the ”SUHD” branding. You obviously cannot trademark generic terms such as LCD or OLED but ”SUHD” is not a technology so Samsung has trademarked it to try to differentiate its high-end LCD TVs.

LG answered at this year’s CES show in Las Vegas by launching so-called ”Super UHD” LCD TVs. It is those exact TVs that has prompted Samsung to send a protest letter to LG. Samsung is pointing out that LG shortened ”Super UHD” to ”SUHD”, which it has trademarked, to promote its new TVs in shops across several countries. Samsung calls it ”deceptive marketing”.

- "Samsung Electronics Spain officially sent a protest letter to LG Electronics Spain to stop using the ‘SUHD' logo on some of the LG TVs in some stores in that country," said Samsung to news paper Korea Times.


LG explains that it was an error and has promised to stop using “SUHD” - but continue to use “Super UHD”. However, it not hard to guess why LG tried to create confusion in the first place. By positioning its high-end LCDs as “Super UHD” – or “SUHD” – LG can, on paper, match Samsung’s ditto. It is easy to rename conventional LCD TVs. However, LG currently has something that Samsung can only dream of; OLED.

The battle between the Korean companies has intensified in recent years. Both manufacturers launched OLED TVs in 2012 but Samsung was forced to admit defeat and pull OLED TVs off the market because it failed to bring down production costs to reasonable levels. Still, Samsung has maintained its position as the top global TV manufacturer for ten years straight. LG hopes that OLED TVs can help them claim the top spot.

- Source: Korea Times