Dispute Details

Primary Issues Encountered

Florida Progress, a utility company, had given a $20,000 grant to USF under a three month contract to be billed on an hourly basis. The scope of the project was to find a way or determine if bacteria could clean clinoptilolite so that it could be reused in wastewater treatment. Dr. Robert Carnahan assigned Petr Táborský, a student assistant in his civil engineering laboratory, to the Florida Progress project as a lab assistant in 1987.

After three months, the project ended with no results and Dr. Carnahan closed the project down and sent Florida Progress a report. Florida Progress was billed $20,000 although not all of the funds had been utilized. Accounting records of USF indicate that the remaining funds were diverted to Dr. Carnahan as a lump sum payroll disbursement.

Táborský planned his Master's thesis to be on the physical properties of clinoptilolite with Dr. Carnahan's approval. In May 1988, he submitted his first report on the subject. His research was unrelated to using bacteria to clean the clay or any other information from the Florida Progress project. Three months later, Táborský made a discovery that would have potential value to Florida Progress.

He had found that super-heating clinoptolite to over 800 degrees Celsius improved the clay substance's ability to clean wastewater. He was told that his results must be wrong because past 600 degrees, the heat would destroy the substance rather than enhance it, but subsequent testing by Táborský proved his thesis.

Dr. Carnahan told Táborský, “This could be worth millions”, but that the student would have no rights in the invention, inaccurately informing him that USF was entitled to his work. Táborský, in turn, consulted a patent attorney, who agreed with him that as the discovery was outside of the Florida Progress boundaries it would belong to him. However, Táborský sought a resolution with Dr. Carnahan and the University. Dr. Carnahan escalated the issue, threatening his student with criminal prosecution. Dr. Carnahan next dangled the offer of employment with Florida Progress and co-authorship on the patent of Táborský's work.

Two months after his discovery, in September 1988, Táborský met with Florida Progress first to discuss his Master's thesis work and then later to discuss employment. In December they sent him an employment agreement that he declined on January 1, 1989. Five days later, he applied for a patent for his concept on patent application number 07/294,160 which resulted in the issuance of patent number 5,082,813 on January 21, 1992.

In January 1989, according to Táborský, Dr. Carnahan left several intimidating messages on his answering machine, demanding he turn over his laboratory notebooks to USF and threatening criminal prosecution. Táborský was, at this time, a Czechoslovakian immigrant, still in the process of gaining citizenship and was frightened by these threats. Based on pressure from his professor and the University, Táborský had taken all of his notes and notebooks and had fled the USF campus. So great was his distress that he did not even return to take his final exams.

Táborský's notebooks were at the heart of USF's case of theft. Carnahan gave a statement to police that Táborský took two notebooks out of a locked laboratory. In fact, as Táborský readily admitted, he had four notebooks that he had purchased and that he kept in his possession both on and off campus. The pages of his notebooks that contained details of his work on the Florida Progress project were already in the University's possession. The only materials he kept were those relating to his unique research related to his Master's thesis. Those pages described his innovation, an innovation that Carnahan and USF knew was valuable, and one they seemed determined to possess. They pursued their student all the way to prison, and eventually even onto a chain gang.

Táborský had never been asked to sign a confidentiality agreement or any type of employment agreement that would have given USF any rights in his work. Additionally, USF had no written policy at that time regarding the University's rights in any student invention. Táborský did eventually sign a confidentiality agreement with Florida Progress as part of his consideration of employment but this was much after the fact of his discovery.