Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California

For many, perhaps most, purposes electronic communications such as e-mail are treated in legal disputes as more or less the equivalent of handwriting, especially when the parties treated the e-mails or other electronic communications as written. The exceptions have to do with very formal instruments such as deeds and wills. Whether the parties intended "something in writing" to require the formality of ink-on-paper could be decisive here, but I can tell you for sure that some mega-million contracts are being done via e-mail these days. A neutral business attorney could look at your particular situation and give you a better idea of whether the e-mail in your situation substitutes adequately for paper-and-ink.

It depends. E-mail can be used in court as evidence of intent or to clarify ambiguous terms, and may be used as a form of notification unless a contract specifies otherwise. As for creating a contract or obligation, that is questionable. Unless all parties to a transaction specifically assent to all its terms, you may have trouble proving a contract.