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17 Jun 2002
Lawyers for Shuji Nakamura are to defend against claims that he lied in court and should be tried for perjury.
As the bitter patent dispute between blue laser pioneer Shuji Nakamura and Nichia rages on, a federal judge has accused Nakamura of lying in court and has recommended that he be prosecuted for perjury (Science 296 31).
James Fox, a district judge in North Carolina, heard Nakamura give evidence in the dispute in November 2001. Prompted by this evidence, Fox has now written a letter to federal prosecutors claiming that Nakamura intentionally submitted false data in conjunction with the applications for Nichia's US patents.
William McLean, Nakamura's lawyer, is disputing these claims. He told Optics.org: "We can prove Nakamura's innocence. I have also written a letter to the federal prosecutor. We are in the process of proving [Nakamura's innocence] at the moment."
When asked if he thought Nakamura would be prosecuted for perjury, he said: "The bottom line is that all the information known to us makes us believe that US attorneys will not prosecute Nakamura over these claims."
The details of exact court proceedings are confidential and cannot be disclosed. However, McLean was able to describe the background to this claim.
"All of Nichia's patents were prepared by their internal patent office. They were all prepared in English and Nakamura was only given the signature page. He did not see the content of the patent applications. Nakamura trusted his employer so signed the patent," he said.
The patents are said to reference certain tests that McLean claims could not have been carried out by Nakamura, as he did not have access to the necessary equipment at Nichia at that time.
"This is a 'spite suit'," said McLean. "Nakamura trusted his employer and now Nichia are doing everything they can to get even with their former employee."
McLean believes that this issue will be resolved early-to-mid next year.
These allegations come one week before Nakamura is to receive the prestigious Benjamin Franklin medal in engineering for his pioneering work on gallium nitride. Previous winners include Albert Einstein and Thomas Edison. Seventy percent of the medal winners go on to receive the Nobel prize.
Author
Jacqueline Hewett is news reporter on Optics.org and Opto & Laser Europe magazine.
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