Price v. Smith Manufacturing Co.

Plaintiff brought this action to recover from the defendants ten per cent of the selling price of eer tain can-filling machines, manufactured and sold by the defendants under a license. The defendants interposed a counterclaim for $200, which the court allowed, and gave judgment for the plaintiff from which the defendants appeal.

The plaintiff, claiming to be the inventor of a certain can-filling machine, applied to the government for a patent in September 1917. About that time he entered into an oral agreement with the defendants by which it was agreed that if plaintiff would permit the…