Shuji Nakamura

The settlement, mediated by the Tokyo High Court, is the largest ever in Japan as compensation for an invention by a corporate employee, although it was sharply reduced from the ¥20 billion the Tokyo District Court ordered Nichia Corp. to pay Shuji Nakamura last year.

The case of Nakamura, now a professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has grown to symbolize the struggle of individual workers against companies over intellectual property rights in a nation where selfless corporate devotion has long been the rule.

The patents for the technology for the blue light-emitting diode, or LED, which is widely used in traffic signals, mobile phones, illumination and other products, have earned the company billions of yen a year, but Nakamura was paid only a token bonus.

The Japan Times Weekly: Jan. 22, 2005
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