Samsung Did Not Pay Apple $1 Billion In Five Cent Coins

Last week Samsung was ordered by the court to pay $1 billion to Apple for copying designs of the iPhone as a result of one of the biggest patent infringement lawsuits in history. The money has not been transferred yet as the full and final ruling is yet to take place which can end up in more than 3 times the current fine of $1 billion. There is also a possibility that Samsung might appeal against the court ruling.

Today all over the web, a story took the attention of people saying that:

 “Samsung paid the fines of $1 billion in the form of 30 trucks loaded with coins of 5 cents.” 

It might sound epic, but the reality is that it is just a hoax initiated by Paper Blog for the sake of getting attention and so far they seem to be succeeding as the article has already got 101k shares on Facebook alone.

The PaperBlog’s story said that this morning 30 trucks were sent to Apple’s head office in California. The security at head office initially stopped the trucks at the entrance, then Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple received a call from the CEO of Samsung that these trucks with 20 billion 5-cent coins have been sent to pay the money ruled by the jury.

 

Tell-Tale Signs

The funniest part about this story is that this whole idea originated from a meme that belonged to 9Gag.com, the popular meme site. Thus this story has nothing to do with reality.

Further, the story didn’t mention any reference link to confirm the news, and it was based on the simple fact that no payment method was described in the verdict that Samsung exploited by sending some 20 billion coins in 30 trucks, which can’t be true as the weight of each 5 cent coin is around 5 grams and it would take more than 2500+ 18-wheeler trucks to carry those coins.

 

So What’s Happening Then

After prevailing in the lawsuit, Apple is now seeking a ban on eight different Samsung smartphones in the U.S. which includes even  Droid charge and Galaxy SII. While Apple made reference to 28 Samsung devices for copying designs in its lawsuit but many of those devices are no longer available in most of the largest markets in the world due to which Apple has now decided to go for only eight smartphones. Apple also tried to drag Samsung Galaxy SIII into the trial but thanks to the SIII’s unique features and nothing much resembling that of Apple’s devices, SIII is safe and sound.

Apple’s victory has been hailed as a strategic victory for the company and an atmosphere setter for the launch of the new iPhone 5 (expected to be released on 12th September). iPhone 5 is definitely going to dominate the market for some time until  Samsung comes up with something original and unique.