Dispute Overview

At the time the controversy began, Petr Táborský was an undergraduate chemistry and biology student at the University of South Florida (USF), who had been hired as a student assistant in the research lab. He had been placed on a project sponsored by the Florida Progress Corporation, who had given the university $20,000 to determine if bacteria could clean clinoptilolite so that it could be reused for wastewater treatment.

Dr. Robert Carnahan, a Dean of Research at USF's College of Engineering oversaw the research, but the project expired with no results found. After the three month long project had ended, Táborský asked Carnahan's permission to continue research on his own, hoping to use it as a thesis for his Master's degree.

Working independently with many sleepless nights spent at the lab, Táborský finally made a breakthrough which Carnahan disclosed to USF and Florida Progress. Both Florida Progress and USF claimed entitlement to his invention, the former offering Táborský a job as well as primary authorship on the patent they wanted to file. Táborský declined the job and told both parties he intended to patent his invention himself. Alarmed by threats of criminal prosecution by USF, Táborský packed up his research notes and fled the University.

USF filed criminal charges against him and Táborský eventually served time on a chain gang as a result of trying to protect his innovation. USF maintained that they had to seek maximum penalties against Táborský in order to alleviate any concerns corporate research sponsors might have. In addition to being jailed on criminal charges, his marriage crumbled, his U.S. citizenship application was put on hold and USF withheld his degree.