A former employee sued Hitachi on Monday for compensation stemming from a patent for computer chip technology, his attorney said. The suit came a week after Japan's Supreme Court handed down a landmark ruling backing inventor rights. The lawsuit by Yoshihiko Okamoto was filed in Tokyo District Court, demanding 200 million yen ($1.7 million) in payment from Japanese electronics maker Hitachi Ltd., his lawyer Hidetoshi Masunaga said. Court spokeswoman Saori Tamura confirmed Okamoto's lawsuit was filed but declined to give details. The contested technology deals with duplicating the patterns of integrated circuits on chips in mass production, Masunaga said. Hitachi declined comment, saying it had not yet seen the lawsuit. Hitachi applied for a patent on the chip circuit technology developed in 1988, when Okamoto, 55, was an employee at Hitachi, Japan's top business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported....