Blue LED Inventor Nakamura Awarded $8.1 Million

redkingca writes "The New York Times (reg required) has an article about an $8.1 million settlement in the blue-LED royalty case. Mr. Nakamura created the blue LED while working for the Nichia Corporation but never received any bonuses or royalties for his invention. A lower court had awarded 20 billion yen, nearly $200 million, and ordered Nichia to pay Mr. Nakamura last year. The settlement came after the company appealed that ruling."

Comments

A great acheivement

[Lindsay Lohan]

Mr. Nakamura created the blue LED... A lower court had awarded 20 billion yen, nearly $200 million

Nice cut for a sweet invention--one that will change laser technology forever. Gallium Nitride LEDs have started to replace lightbulbs and fluorescent tubes for lighting. GaN based blue lasers allow data storage with much higher density than traditional red lasers, and there are many more application areas.

Here's an interesting article from ScienceWatch (no bloodsucking reg required) which goes into more detail on the history and application of this *very* cool technology.

No reg required

[elecngnr]

For those who would like to read a similar article without having to give out information:

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5 ?nn20050112a1.htm

and here:

http://www.out-law.com/php/page.php?page_id=bluele dinventorse1105540939&area=news

Pretty nice chunk of change for this guy. Although the company made quite a cunk themselves off of his work.

Please note...

[BJH]

...Nakamura held a press conference (Yahoo Japan link) after the settlement was reached, where he said he considered the result to be a "total loss", described the Japanese legal system as "rotten", and urged researchers in technical fields to move to the US (he currently works at the University of California).

Meanwhile, the CEO of Nichia held a separate press conference where he announced that real researchers do it for the joy of technical achievement, and not for mere monetary compensation. What an asshole...

Re:What an awful precedent, though

[BJH]

Please note that under Japanese law, there is a provision for employees to be compensated for exceptional performance (which I would hope few people would deny was true of Nakamura's discovery).

So his lawsuit was based on a legal requirement for the company to pay him fairly.

japanese point of view

[jxyama]

the take in japan is that it's not as cut and dry as "one works for the company to invent, whatever profit derived from it is owned by the company and not to the inventor."

this is not the first lawsuit of this kind. inventor of aspartane (artificial sweetner) sued ajinomoto (company known for MSG) and won ~$1.5 million before.

basically, the feeling is that providing reasonable compensation for inventors, regardless of where technically the invention patent or methods belong to, is good for the morale of workers, provides incentives and thus advances the society as a whole and increases competitiveness of corporations. finally, providing reasonable compensation is also economically viable for the company.

he was awarded $8.1 million after his contribution to the invention was deemed to be 5%, instead of the 50% in the prior ruling. the original ruling resulted in ~$600 million settlement.

the company issued a statement saying it's glad that the invention of LED was attributed to more than just one person, as indicated by the reduction of Dr. Nakamura's contribution value by the court.