I was sat on a bus recently and noticed the person sat
in front of me reading an email. The subject header clearly read
"PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL".
It's not possible to know what is contained in such an email
without surreptitiously peering over that person's shoulder.
However, should one choose that particular course of action, would
that constitute a novelty destroying disclosure if the email
contained details of a new invention?
This is potentially problematic, as a novelty destroying
disclosure could invalidate a subsequent patent protecting that
invention.
Emails as disclosures
The European Patent Office (EPO) considered emails as
disclosures in a test case (T 2/09) where it was said that an email
transmitted over the internet before the filing date of a patent
application is not prejudicial against the novelty and inventive
step of that patent application.
