The researcher Nakamura Shūji sued Nichia Corporation, the company where he had worked, for a fair reward for his invention of the blue light-emitting diode. On January 30, 2004, the Tokyo District Court valued the invention at 60.43 billion yen and ordered Nichia to pay 20 billion yen, the amount he had claimed for the time being.
In January 2005, the two sides settled. Nichia agreed to pay about 843.9 million yen.