LG is suing rival South Korean consumer electronics giant Samsung for slander over a series of adverts which, it alleged, make false and defamatory claims about one of its top-of-the-range digital TV products.

LG maintains Samsung's ads were designed to disrupt sales of a plasma TV with a built-in hard disk drive and PVR functionality. Samsung is alleged to have said the product needed a noisy cooling system - it doesn't, said LG - and that the product was designed to last rather less than it actually will - 20,000 hours to LG's claimed 50,000 hours lifespan.

LG said today it has no choice but to put the matter in the hands of the courts, local newspaper the Chosun Ilbo reports. ®