Nichia planning to waive its patent right of the blue light-emitting diode technology

Nichia Corp. is planning to waive its patent right of the blue light-emitting diode technology used in a broad range of products from traffic signals to mobile phone screens after a legal row with former employee Shuji Nakamura, sources familiar with the matter said Feb. 10, 2006. [See previous post on IPBiz.]

In January 2004, the Tokyo District Court ordered Nichia to pay 20 billion yen to Nakamura, saying the company had made huge profits through exclusive use of the blue LED patent. The company later appealed the ruling.

A year later, Nichia and Nakamura reached a negotiated settlement on the dispute on the landmark patent with Nichia agreeing to pay 843 million yen to Nakamura, now professor at the University of California at Santa Barbara.

The settlement, mediated by the Tokyo High Court, is the largest in Japan to be paid for an employee's invention.

Nichia commercialized the blue LED in 1993 for the first time in the world. It converts electricity into blue light. Experts say the invention was revolutionary, as it made it possible to create all colors on computer screens when a blue LED is combined with red and green LED. Technology for red and green was established earlier.