Shuji Nakamura brought suit against Nichia Corp. in 2001 for paying him $180 for the patent in the early 1990s.
Shuji Nakamura fought for fair patent compensation, won the Physics Nobel for blue LEDs along with two others.
LED bulbs are all the rage these days because they're efficient, last for years—even decades—and give off warmer light than compact fluorescent bulbs. But they owe their existence to three materials scientists who solved the mystery of blue LEDs in the early 1990s. Isamu Akasaki of Meijo University, Hiroshi Amano of Nagoya University, and Shuji Nakamura of UC-Santa Barbara worked on the blue LED problem when only red and green LEDs had been invented. By creating techniques to produce blue LED light, the three paved the way for the creation of full-color LED screens as well as a novel way of making white light (by combining red, blue, and green LEDs) that is now used in LED bulbs. At the time of the discoveries, Akasaki and Amano were working together at the University of Nagoya, and Nakamura was working separately at Nichia Chemicals in Tokushima.