Did Samsung pay Apple in nickel coins...... ?!?!?

The World Wide Web is replete with information, so easily available ~ but not what all you read may be true !!

The news now is that the legal war between Apple and Samsung is far from voer ~ not in U.S. courtroom  right now but in at least a half dozen countries on four continents.   According to reports Apple Inc has won a legal battle on one of those continents. While the final verdict has not been officially filed yet (that comes later with the determination of damages), a court in Japan ruled this week in favor of Apple, stating that  Samsung had indeed infringed on a  patent  for a "bounceback" scrolling feature on its Glaxy series of handsets.  This verdict was only considered preliminary, as the Tokyo District Court said it still needed further review to determine if Samsung should pay damages to Apple Inc.  and how much.

Last year Internet was ripe with a news :  Apple was awarded more than $1bn (£632m) in damages after its rival smartphone and tablet manufacturer Samsung was found to have copied critical features of its iPhone and iPad.  The news was that the US jury stunned observers by returning a decision after just two and a half days' deliberation following four weeks of legal argument. The jurors rejected every single one of the South Korean company's patent claims, and backed Apple's claim that Samsung had breached US antitrust laws by trying to keep its wireless patents as a monopoly.

Samsung was quoted as saying: "This verdict should not be viewed as a win for Apple, but as a loss for the American consumer. It will lead to fewer choices, less innovation, and potentially higher prices. It is unfortunate that patent law can be manipulated to give one company a monopoly over rectangles with rounded corners, or technology that is being improved every day by Samsung and other companies.

the trucks lined up with coins !!!

Then came the ‘Internet meme’ which circulated hot stating --- this morning more than 30 trucks filled with 5-cent coins arrived at Apple’s headquarters in California. Initially, the security company that protects the facility said the trucks were in the wrong place, but minutes later, Tim Cook (Apple CEO) received a call from Samsung CEO explaining that they will pay $1 billion dollars for the fine recently ruled against the South Korean company in this way. The funny part is that the signed document does not specify a single payment method, so Samsung is entitled to send the creators of the iPhone their billion dollars in the way they deem best. This dirty but genius geek troll play is a new headache to Apple executives as they will need to put in long hours counting all that money, to check if it is all there and to try to deposit it crossing fingers to hope a bank will accept all the coins.

Lee Kun-hee, Chairman of Samsung Electronics was quoted as saying to his counterpart - You can use your coins to buy refreshments at the little machine for life or melt the coins to make computers, that’s not my problem, I already paid them and fulfilled the law.  The story ended with the Q : Let’s see how Apple will respond to this.

A search on this revealed that this was entirely untrue……….and here is the newsitem that appeared  in Guardian UK on this.  It stated that trucks in picture were those on the A40 highway in London. It logically stated that one needs  2,755 to carry a billion dollars in nickels. The article categorically stated that the fine had not yet become payable  and still more all United States money are a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services.  Thus it would be Apple's choice whether it accepted the payment.  It further stated "A nickel weighs 5g. It would take 2,755 18-wheeler trucks (max legal tare 80,000 lbs) to carry the money." The amount of copper involved (95% of each nickel) is truly humungous because a billion is a very big number.

The story actually originated on El Deforma, described (by many) as "an Onion-like Mexican website" - that is, specialising in fake news.  Thanks to Guardian UK for this and the lesson learnt is

‘double check anything that you read and do rush to share in on FB or any other social media’

With regards – S. Sampathkumar 

22^nd June 2013.