Updated 7/15/2013: LG has confirmed to Ubergizmo that LG Korea has never used the word “Unpacked” (or Unpack) in any invitations related to a new product launch and that the original reports from etnews were wrong.
When it comes to announcing new products at events, Samsung has typically used the term “Unpacked”, such as earlier this year where Samsung’s Unpacked Event was for the unveiling of the Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone. However while the term has been sort of associated with Samsung for a while now, it has apparently not been trademarked and over in South Korea, both Samsung and LG are currently disputing the use of the “Unpacked” term. It seems that Samsung is not happy that LG has used the term “Unpacked Event” by LG in their announcement for the upcoming LG Optimus G2.
According to Samsung, the term is unique to Samsung and claims that LG plagiarized it. However according to the Intellectual Property Office, they say that Samsung is not allowed to trademark the “Unpacked” term due to it being a common verb. LG responded by saying that the term “Unpack” has been used by many companies before Samsung, and that the official name of the event will be shown in the invites, and that the “Unpack” term was used merely for announcement purposes. In any case this just goes to show how fierce the rivalry can get these days, especially between two companies producing Android smartphones and competing for market share.