Japan, Inventor-Employer Relationship

The beginning of this year saw the resolution of case Shuji Nakamura vs. Nichia Corporation, who developed “phosphor/LED”. This case has been the focus of much attention in Japan and it was resolved with the assigning to Mr. Nakamura of 843 million yen. This is a breakthrough for the Japanese, where, to date, inventors have always been somewhat invisible in academia and corporations in terms of inventor-ship acknowledgement and compensation. In the light of this recent decision, things could be changing for Japanese inventors