Bole

This was a suit for infringement of letters patent and lor an accounting. From an interlocutory decree in favor of the plaintiffs, the present appeal is prosecuted.

For a number of years last past the appellant Wilson & Willard Manufacturing Company has been engaged in the manufacture and sale of under-reamers and other machinery used chiefly in oil well construction. Its place oí business is Los Angeles, Cal. The appellant Wilson is president and general manager of the company, and for some years prior to 1913 the appellee Bole was either an employe of the company or intimately associated with the company in a business way. During the period in question under-reamers of different types were manufactured and sold at the shops of the appellant company, but the present controversy involves only a single-piece key which serves as a lock *608 and support for the spring which sustains the bit-carrying rod within the body of the reamer. Inasmuch as the novelty or patentability of the device is not here in question, a more detailed description of the reamer and its parts is not deemed material ^t this time.

On the 19th day of February, 1911, appellee Bole made application for letters…