You Don't Own My Email!

The High Court has recently confirmed the legal principle that there is no property in the content of an email.

Background

This wasn't an IP case as such. The Claimant shipping company was being investigated by the Oslo stock exchange and, in order to put its best case forward, the Claimant wanted to inspect emails of its former Chief Executive. Because of a jurisdiction clause, the Claimant's request to inspect the emails was reliant on it owning the contents of the emails.

Mr Justice Edwards-Stuart dismissed the application. In reviewing the case law, he thought there was nothing in English case law to support the idea of property in the content of information. However, this hadn't yet been considered in the context of emails and the employer/ employee relationship. He therefore considered the legal possibilities surrounding ownership of emails.