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.

Comments

Labor/Capital balance gone awry?

[OhYeah!]

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.

I can see both sides

[Trepidity]

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.

Re:I can see both sides

[OhYeah!]

"I mean that was what they were paying you for in the first place."

Lots of professionals are able to hold on to a piece of their work, even if they did it under contract/salary. Think Hollywood, songwriters, photographers, some journalists, etc. Why couldn't it be different for scientists? No Reason! It would be trivial to arrange for a few percent royalty on Patents developed. Many universities operate this way with an 80%university/20%researcher split.

No offense but...

[Twid]

I doubt this guy was rich enough to start his own Blue LED research lab, which I am sure cost millions and millions of dollars.

If he wants to own his own patents, I'm sure there is no law in japan stopping him from quitting and starting his own lab with his own money.

This is just crazy to me. The guy is a RESEARCHER working for a COMPANY and people think that he should have a right to the PATENTS on things that he researched and invented ON THE JOB?

This is as bad as the MP3 whiners. Want free music? Make some, and give it away. Problem solved.

Face it...

[OneFix]

Corporations are not going to pay for employees to sit around all day doing expensive scientific research if they don't get the patents. The guy may have only been paid ~$162 for his patent, but how much did he earn from his employer while he was busy developing the technology?

Now, if the guy was a janitor that happened to come up with a blue LED, then I might say he has a point....but, Nichia Corporation is in the business of LEDs!!!

Amazing

[Ace905]

I read the exact story on this when Wired first published it, I believe it was called "True Boo-Roo" - a reference to the japanese use of the english language to discribe "true blue" since their word for Blue is the same as Green.

What I don't find amazing is the fact that the company took the right to the Blue Led. In the wired article they talked about how the company funded his research efforts for YEARS hoping that he would develop something. I don't know about you, but if I were to make such a risky investment I'd expect something for it - like what I invested in.

From the article itself, "Nakamura chose to work on gallium nitride not because he was confident of success, but "because I had had the bitter experience that if you do the same as everyone else, when it comes to making products, you can't sell them. So I chose a material that almost no one else was working on ... and our chairman and president let me have the money I needed."

Not only did he let him have the money, he paid his salary as an inventor for the company. This case is rediculous, on this one I'm for the corporation.

Re:Amazing

[foghorn19]

I'm finishing up my PhD in Gallium Nitride research, and have been a part of the GaN effort at a U.S. university for ~ 6 years. The story is not as simple as it appears.

Nakamura indeed got extensive support from the company. The company and Nakamura BOTH bet on this family of semiconductor materials, with Nakamura leading the way and the company providing him the money and the freedom to take the risky path. Before Nakamura's breakthrough inventions, Nichia sold phosphors for use in CRTs, stuff NOWHERE near semiconductor materials.

Nakmura invented practically all the necessary materials science research and laboratory equipment to make blue LEDs feasible. At research conferences such as MRS (http://www.mrs.org) his results completely cleaned out the field. Lightyears ahead of the rest of the research community combined. He often did not understand the physics of the stuff to as much accuracy as others later figured out, but he made GaN WORK. He is an awesome inventor. Never took a vacation for more than a DECADE!

Nichia owns more than a hundred patents because of the research he led and contributed to enormously. To be compensated a few thousand bucks for those patents (I believe it is $182 PER PATENT), is a frickin' JOKE. How bad will Nichia look if Nakamura gets a Nobel Prize and Nichia does not compensate him better?

The commercial potential of GaN is ENORMOUS. In addition to blue LEDs, you have a huge improvement in optical storage (see http://www.licensing.philips.com/information/bd/ ).

So, in a fair world, Nakamura would have been compensated much better than he has been. The rest of the researchers on his team should've been, too.

F.

Shuji at UCSB

[NeuroKoan]

Shuji is now a professor at UCSB and is making wonderful advancements in materials engineering. Here's a quick link to whats he's up to recently.
http://www.engineering.ucsb.edu/Announce/2awards.h tml.

Just a little more information on this great thinker.

Re:Just thought I'd point it out.

[F13]

midori - green

but as i understand it Aoi is blue/green

aoi umi - blue sea

aoi shibafu - green grass

Hmm....

[fireboy1919]

Riiigggghhhht...because before that company, Kary Mullis was an intellectual midget who never did anything. And he wouldn't have done anything without getting paid for it.

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.
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.

All without the benefit of that company.

Try thinking the other way: if Kary Mullis didn't exist, that company wouldn't have lasted very long.

Saying that those who take the risk cause inventions is like saying that those who jump off of buildings cause gravity. Necessity and passion are the mother and father of invention; business is merely an unfortunate side-effect- like the splat at the end of the jump.