Samsung Ditches Under Lee Jae-yong

Samsung Group is gradually changing its image under conglomerate heir Lee Jae-yong as his father, chairman Lee Kun-hee, languishes in hospital.

Top subsidiary Samsung Electronics now often omits the company's trademark oval background to the logo from marketing materials, which has piqued the interest of observers.

The company omitted the oval background at the Internationale Funkausstellung in Berlin in early September.

A Samsung spokesman said, "We started using a new logo for marketing materials since the first half of this year." That would mean that the entire conglomerate has effectively ditched the oval, since most of the group's marketing revolves around Samsung Electronics.

The oval logo was the brainchild of Lee Kun-hee when he announced a massive innovation drive in the conglomerate in 1993.

Samsung claims that the decision to ditch the oval stems from copyright concerns and some other restrictions.