Four Side Views of Blue LED Patent Pricing

Abstract

The price of patents is limited by four sides of business management: (1) avoiding costs of the patent in question; (2) founder's profit of inventors, such as researchers and engineers, to bear risks involved in business establishment; (3) factors supporting competitive advantage identified in the resource-based view of strategic management; and (4) negative impact of big money for the researcher's invention. This tetragon of limitations bounds the price range of patents. This is illustrated by exemplifying the blue LED lawsuit case in Japan. This study presents the four side views on the differences between what companies pursue and what employee inventors pursue. However, these various differences make it possible to coexist and co-prosper between companies and inventors, otherwise they continue the tug-of-war forever on the one-dimensional monetary scale.