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Blue LED Inventor Loses Patent Fight
Swamp writes "Just a little heads-up for you engineers. The Mainichi Daily News is running this story saying 'A Nobel Prize candidate who invented a blue light-emitting diode (LED) used for display panels has no patent rights over the product as he conceded it to his former employer, a court ruled Thursday.'
'Japan's Patent Law provides that researchers who invent products as part of their company jobs have the patent for them, but adds that their employers can claim the patent after paying "deserving bonuses" to the inventors.' I guess not even being a Nobel Prize [contender] gives you credit anymore." His 20,000 yen bonus is about US$162 now.
I read that Steve Wozniak wanted blue LEDs to line the underground caves he build for his autistic son, but back in 1993 or 4 when it was constructed, no one made blue LEDs.
So, Woz apparently had to buy 100,000 of them (at something like $3-4 each) even though he only needed a few thousand, the rest ended up being sold in smaller lots and "jump starting" blue LED availability, at least here on the West Coast.
Does anyone out there happen to know if this story is true? I've always wondered.
That's 161 dollars more than I got for any of my 12 patents.
This reminds me of Kary Mullis who invented PCR. His company was sold for $700M on the basis of that invention, he got a $10K bonus.
Scientists should unionize - they typically so involved in their work that they end up getting the *shaft* monetarily, while MBA monkeys soak up all the profits.
On the one hand, it is true that patent law is becoming increasingly skewed against individual inventors. But on the other hand, if your job at a company is to come up with new ideas and methods of doing [whatever your particular field is], it wouldn't make much sense if you could come up with them, patent them, and then hold the company hostage, demanding they license your ideas. I mean that was what they were paying you for in the first place.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
1. Work on revolutionary product for firm with deep pockets
2. Make a major breakthrough
3. Hide major breakthrough from employers
4. Quit your job
5. Spend a little to open (what you will tell everyone, is) a lab.
6. Spend hours in lab, watching TV
7. Come out with patentable idea that you invented in your "lab".
8. Patent Idea
9. ???
10. Profit!
Yeah, longer than the usual 3/4-step process, but it works out much better.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
This guy invented something on company time and that's it.
I was reading elsewhere though, that the real tragedy is that Japanese companies do not reward their employs for the patents they do file. In the US, "real" companies will give employs 1-2K $ (or more) for patents, just because companies like to own patents. If it's a BIG patent, the inventor is more hansomely reward (often with stock and options).
Because of this, Japanese employees really don't have much incentive to work on hard patents for their companies. Their are probably exceptions -- Sony comes to mind as a company that almost surely has a more sensible patent reward system. But many "common" Japanses companies don't see things as Sony does, and overall this tends to hurt the Japanese economy.
So that's what's really going on here. This guy is trying to call attention to the fact that the common patent system in his country is broken and needs attention.
In addition to LEDs and data storage, GaN based devices have tremendous potential in communication (cell phone base stations), space electronics, compact UV photodetectors, high power microwave integrated circuits, power electronics, medical devices, etc. (Sh*t, this stuff seems to be coming from my thesis-writing mode I'm in.)
midori - green
but as i understand it Aoi is blue/green
aoi umi - blue sea
aoi shibafu - green grass
I once worked for a company where we were in such a union. Association of Scientists and Professional Engineering Personnel (ASPEP). They had a collective bargaining agreement and were able to get a (slightly) better deal for their employees. The dues were more than reasonable (pennies, really) but the progress they got was limited. Some employees complained that they didn't push the company hard enough, but the company was barely staying afloat as it was so there wasn't much that could be done anyhow. Nevertheless, I thought it was a neat idea.
Well, I think I should point out that:
That said, even with his lossage, I think he had won. Before this fight, it was not widely known that person who did the invention did have copyright on one's work. It was assumed - just like the air - that company owns everything even without any specific agreement. Now everyone know that they do have a right and does not necessary have to give it away for free upon employment. Nakamura's major goal with this fight was to raise controversy on this copyright issue, and it is now accomplished.
Now, commenting on detail, I won't be surprised if he had signed the thing even without reading a single word on it - there was a time that people believed that company will do you a good if you blindly follow what they tell you to do. So his 20,000yen was probably not paid for the invention itself, but was more like a "bonus" in Japanese way.
In Japan, you get "bonus" twice a year. Everyone get it if anyone gets it. You don't get it for doing exceptional work or such, but company gives it to you to show that they care about you. But telling the truth, it's actually a part of your regular salary - you just get less monthly payment. You can tell because when you make a loan from a bank, it is always suggested to pay more back on month you get your bonus. Ever heard of a "bonus" that is expected to be given every year on same month? Well, this is the one and meaning of the word is really blurring here (though things are changing).
I bet this 20,000yen was given in similar way - not for his invention, but just as some kind of social custom. The company just had to give him the money. On the other hand, the only way for Nakamura to get acknowledgement was by receiving the money. At the time, both of them probably didn't even had in their mind that they were exchanging the invention and the money.
But anyway, he did sign the agreement, and the court judgment is made. I think court decision was fair enough from today's standard, but feel pretty sad because they never mentioned one important piece on this case - history. In Japan, signing an agreement was traditionally not considered that important or critical. It's not that people ignored it - but it's just they "believed" unwritten social contract would protect them more than signed paper would. This was especially true for a relation between employer and employee. Of course, this had never been a truth in the court (but it was so uncommon to use the court in old days), and this is why Nakamura is having a problem right now. I'm expecting more and more "Nakamura"s are following - rebellion against a company that one used to believe as an absolute (but nice) ruler.
Lets pretend that scientists like him couldn't work in companies. Recognizing his sheer genius, people would buy him lab equipment if he promised to share his future wealth. Why would they do this even though he had no company? Because he's a freakin' genius.
Then he'd get rich.
And those who invested in him would get rich.
Although the geniuses of the world surely have the potential to make "leaps and bounds" type discoveries, that does *not* guarantee a monetary reward to anyone.
There wouldn't be any worry about HOW to sell it; he built the best mousetrap, and the world would have beaten a path to his door.
Umm, dangerous ground there. Remember the "Dot Com New Economy"? The one that touted the Field of Dreams marketing philosophy of "If you build it, they will come"? Believe it or not, there were a lot of geniuses who built a lot of really innovative things in that bubble, and only the ones with a decent, solid compamy behind them saw their products succeed in the market. Those who didn't have that are working elsewhere now, with little to show for their past "mousetraps".
It's fine and well to make the world's best mousetrap, but that mousetrap isn't worth anything until it's a successful product and people can actually buy it, and only then does the inventor get the financial rewards coming to him/her. That takes solid business skills.
Right. No, your other right. No, the other other right.
...Nichia should endow a chair at a major research institute and arrange to have Nakamura granted tenure.
Nakamura's profession is scientific research. If relations have soured between Nichia and Nakamura to the extent that direct cooperation between them is no longer possible, then at the very least Nichia should arrange a setting where Nakamura can continue his research elsewhere.
Lots of companies endow chairs at major universities, and there are significant tax benefits for doing so. Nakamura also has obviously wasted a large part of his career on this pointless lawsuit, and might welcome such an opportunity to return to his passion.
Even if Nakamura has no interest in such an offer, the PR value for Nichia would be inestimable... right now their PR position seems very, very bad to me.
Nichia, be a magnanimous victor.