SEOUL-The prospering Hyundai Motor and the troubled Daewoo Motor are on a collision course concerning World Cup marketing.

With Daewoo having already started World Cup-related sales promotion events, Hyundai, one of official sponsors for the global football event, has decided to take countermeasures, including the filing of a suit against Daewoo.

The dispute was touched off when Daewoo began the "Challenge World Cup Event" when the 2002 Nubira II sedan was introduced to the market. Under the promotional campaign, the firm is set to waive interest payments for those who purchase a new Nubira while curtailing the principal to within the boundary of 1 million won.

Daewoo has also been distributing footballs with signatures of Korean World Cup candidate players. It also plans to hold a "World Cup Amateur Games" with a purse of 57 million won for the winning team.

Irked by Daewoo’s brisk sales promotion activities, Hyundai Motor and related concerns, like the Korea Football Association and ISL Korea, the official World Cup marketing agency, have begun to join forces in taking counter steps.

They alleged Daewoo has been violating the related rules by using the official emblem, mascot and logo of the FIFA 2002 World Cup.

Furthermore, Hyundai has already paid tens of millions of dollars to ISL while offering some 2,000 cars for 13 games as requested by the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA).

"In return, Hyundai has been given exclusive rights for uses of the said marks and logo," said a Hyundai official. Hyundai sent a protest letter to Daewoo while referring a leading law firm for legal review of Daewoo’s activities.

According to Hyundai officials, any domestic and foreign concerns are prevented from using the FIFA 2002 World Cup for marketing promotion.

But Daewoo remains adamant in this respect. "It is nonsense to prohibit the use of the world "World Cup," which has already become a general noun. As we promised the marketing methods to our clients, we cannot back down on the pledge under any circumstance," said a Daewoo official.

"It does not matter if Daewoo uses "World Cup" for the promotion of additional services as long as it does not promote brand or commodity names," he said.