Shuji Nakamura was paid ¥20,000 for the blue LED patent, a Tokyo court awarded him ¥20 billion, and he settled for ¥840 million

Shuji Nakamura developed bright blue LEDs at Nichia Corporation, which came to hold a near monopoly on the blue LED market. He says he received ¥20,000, about $180, for the key patent. Nichia says it paid him ¥62 million in promotions and bonuses over 11 years. He left in 1999 for the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 2001 he sued Nichia for a share of the invention's value. His case was part of a series of suits involving Nichia and its US rival Cree, which backed him. In January 2004 the Tokyo District Court awarded him ¥20 billion, about $200 million. Reports differ on whether that was the full sum he claimed or ten times it. Nichia appealed. In January 2005 the Tokyo High Court mediated a settlement. Nichia agreed to pay about ¥840 million, about $8.1 million: ¥608 million for his inventions and the rest for late payment. It was the most a Japanese company had paid an employee for an invention. Nakamura said he was "totally dissatisfied". Nichia said even that amount was excessive. In 2014 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Isamu Akasaki and Hiroshi Amano for efficient blue LEDs. He became a US citizen around 2005.