Japanese Universities Clean Up on Blue LED Technology: Some 96 percent of patent fees that national universities gained in fiscal 2003 came from inventions related to blue light-emitting diodes (LEDs) developed by Professor Emeritus Isamu Akasaki of Nagoya University, government officials said.

The demand for blue LEDs that have a lengthy lifespan and are bright has been rapidly growing as they are widely used for traffic lights and other similar purposes.

In fiscal 2003, 14 institutions, including those established jointly by multiple national universities and national colleges of technology gained a combined amount of roughly 427 million yen in patent fees, according to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.