Five retailers, including Amazon, Bed Bath & Beyond, Ikea, Target, and Walmart are facing a lawsuit brought by the University of California, Santa Barbara for patent infringement. The university claims four patents are being infringed for "filament" LED light bulbs.

As Reuters reports, the litigation is a response to "widespread disregard" for the patent rights of universities. The light bulbs in question have been available for the past five years and are often referred to as "Edison" of "vintage" bulbs. It's easy to spot them because they look like classic light bulbs with a glowing filament inside, but a key difference is they consume 90 percent less power.

The technology used in these bulbs was developed by researchers at the University of California and led by professor Shuji Nakamura. Back in 2014, Nakamura won the Nobel Prize for Physics for his invention of efficient blue LEDs.

The desired result of the lawsuit is for the retailers to enter into license agreements with the university, but also to pay unspecified damages and royalties relating to the sale of these bulbs.

Why target the retailers you may ask? Because the university says they have "failed to require their suppliers to honor the university's patents." With that in mind, the US International Trade Commission has also been asked to open a probe into the conduct of the retailers. At the time of writing, none of the retailers had commented on the action being taken against them.

If the university wins this case it will have a big knock-on effect over how patent infringement is tackled in future. Rather than going after the companies creating the products that infringe the patent, the retailers will be targeted instead.