The dispute involving the inventor of the blue light-emitting diode (LED) and his former employer has ended in a mediated settlement in which the Tokyo High Court has confirmed the in-house inventor's right to a fair reward. The high court heard the case between Mr. Shuji Nakamura, the inventor and now a professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara, and his former company, Nichia Corp. of Tokushima Prefecture, after both sides had appealed a lower-court ruling last January.
In that ruling, the Tokyo District Court had ordered Nichia to pay Mr. Nakamura's claim for 20 billion yen as a fair reward for the invention under the Patent Law. In the court-mediated settlement announced Tuesday, this amount was greatly reduced to about 843 million yen, comprising a reward plus compensation for the delay in payment. Nevertheless, the amount is the highest-ever decided for an in-house invention in Japan.
Tuesday's settlement is significant in that it recognizes the rights of employees whose inventions lead to huge corporate profits. It will probably serve as a yardstick in deciding future rewards for in-house inventors.