A Japanese inventor has won a patent dispute with his former employer Hitachi before the Japanese Supreme Court, which will result in a compensation of 163 million yen (£733,000) for his research on optical disks.
 The decision backs the ruling of a lower court. The compensation to be paid by Hitachi to employee Seiji Yonezawa is a share of overseas royalties on the technology he invented.
 The result will please investors as “this ruling will give courage to hard-working company researchers and encourage further technological development”, said Yonezawa. The companies however may be worried about the decision as they bear risk on funding research. “This ruling may have a grave impact on Japanese firms’ research and development.” Hitachi spokesman Masayuki Takeuchi said to news agency Reuters after the ruling.
