Troubles on the Rising Sun Horizon? This case is the latest in a series of court disputes in Japan regarding the transfer of patent rights to companies by inventors on their payrolls. A former Sharp Corp employee has sued the consumer electronics maker for 500 mln yen over key technology he claims to have developed for use in flat screen products, while in January the Tokyo District Court ordered Japanese firm Nichia Corp to pay a record 20 bln yen to the inventor of the revolutionary blue light-emitting diode (LED).