The Tokyo District Court on Friday ordered midsize chemical maker Nichia Corp. to pay an unprecedented ¥20 billion to the inventor of a key semiconductor device for his transfer of patent rights to the firm.
The award to Shuji Nakamura, a professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara who developed the blue light-emitting diode while working at Nichia, is the largest ever in Japan for the transfer of patent rights.
Presiding Judge Ryoichi Mimura concluded that the Anan, Tokushima Prefecture-based firm had earned ¥120.8 billion in royalties for the patent.