the nail that sticks out… tells the story of Shuji Nakamura, a Japanese researcher responsible for the discovery and creation of a technology that enabled the “millions of new products that we use everyday from LED traffic lights, to DVD players to LCD televisions, and many other products.” For his work, he was given an extra $200.
Due to the nature of the Japanese business, he was forced to sue the company he worked for, after moving to the US and becoming a teacher at UC Santa Barbara. He was awarded $194 million by the court, but after an appeal to the Japanese court, that ended up being closer to $8 million. A good payout, but considering the amount of money his work brought to his company, a very small slice of the pie.