Legal and Administerial Overreach by IPO while Considering Proof of Right Requirement

India being a dualist country has to domesticate treaty obligations to enforce the same at domestic level by enacting statutes, which in turn must be construed in the light of the parent treaty. This paper introspects the complexity in identifying the applicable rule concerning the Proof of Right requirement for Indian National Phase Applications under Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) Rule 4.17. It goes on to highlight the incongruity between the PCT regulations and the domestic law as interpreted and applied by the Indian Patent Office (IPO). A comparative study of legal positions in other also included for a better understanding of approaches by foreign patent office towards implementing PCT obligations concerning Proof of Right. In essence, this paper sheds light on how the IPO’s demand for proof of right contradicts with several provisions of the PCT Regulations, the recent PCT Applicant’s Guide for the national phase and concludes by mooting some suggestions to resolve the issue

Amendments at Indian National Phase: In Harmony with PCT Standards?

61-67The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) under Article 28 / Rule 52 or Article 41 / Rule 78 guarantees the applicant the right to amend claims, description and drawings before each designated/elected office, on national phase entry or at least one month thereafter, further to the amendments submitted during the International phase of the application. The Indian Patent Office (IPO) however refuses to allow amendments while entering the national phase,1 except for deletion2 of one or more claims under Rule 20(1)3 of the Patent Rules 2003. The Patent Offices of other PCT signatories like the European Patent Office (EPO), the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS)4, the Chinese Patent Office (CNIPA) and the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (INPI)allow this amendment under Article 28/Article 41 PCT. The IPO accepts all other types of amendments such as merging of two or more claims, alteration of the claim language, etc. only during the national phase proceedings. These amendments can be made either through a request for voluntary amendments in Form 13 along with payment of the associated fee, or in response to the examination report. The latter requires, the applicant to wait until the examination report is communicated. In this article, we are attempting to analyze whether India is in line with the above mentioned provisions of PCT in respect ofproviding the applicants an opportunity to amend the claims further from that on file in the international phase, at the time of filing the national phase application

Amendments at Indian National Phase: In Harmony with PCT Standards?

The Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) under Article 28 / Rule 52 or Article 41 / Rule 78 guarantees the applicant the right to amend claims, description and drawings before each designated/elected office, on national phase entry or at least one month thereafter, further to the amendments submitted during the International phase of the application. The Indian Patent Office (IPO) however refuses to allow amendments while entering the national phase,1 except for deletion2 of one or more claims under Rule 20(1)3 of the Patent Rules 2003. The Patent Offices of other PCT signatories like the European Patent Office(EPO), the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore (IPOS)4, the Chinese Patent Office (CNIPA) and the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (INPI)allow this amendment under Article 28/Article 41 PCT. The IPO accepts all other types of amendments such as merging of two or more claims, alteration of the claim language, etc. only during the national phase proceedings. These amendments can be made either through a request for voluntary amendments in Form 13 along with payment of the associated fee, or in response to the examination report. The latter requires, the applicant to wait until the examination report is communicated. In this article, we are attempting to analyze whether India is in line with the above mentioned provisions of PCT in respect of providing the applicants an opportunity to amend the claims further from that on file in the international phase, at the time of filing the national phase application

Legal and Administerial Overreach by IPO while Considering Proof of Right Requirement

20-30India being a dualist country has to domesticate treaty obligations to enforce the same at domestic level by enacting statutes, which in turn must be construed in the light of the parent treaty. This paper introspects the complexity in identifying the applicable rule concerning the Proof of Right requirement for Indian National Phase Applications under Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) Rule 4.17. It goes on to highlight the incongruity between the PCT regulations and the domestic law as interpreted and applied by the Indian Patent Office (IPO). A comparative study of legal positions in other countriesare also included for a better understanding of approaches by foreign patent office towards implementing PCT obligations concerning Proof of Right. In essence, this paper sheds light on how the IPO’s demand for proof of right contradicts with several provisions of the PCT Regulations, the recent PCT Applicant’s Guide for the national phase and concludes by mooting some suggestions to resolve the issue

Detecting a stochastic gravitational wave background with the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna

The random superposition of many weak sources will produce a stochastic background of gravitational waves that may dominate the response of the LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) gravitational wave observatory. Unless something can be done to distinguish between a stochastic background and detector noise, the two will combine to form an effective noise floor for the detector. Two methods have been proposed to solve this problem. The first is to cross-correlate the output of two independent interferometers. The second is an ingenious scheme for monitoring the instrument noise by operating LISA as a Sagnac interferometer. Here we derive the optimal orbital alignment for cross-correlating a pair of LISA detectors, and provide the first analytic derivation of the Sagnac sensitivity curve.Comment: 9 pages, 11 figures. Significant changes to the noise estimate

Search for non-relativistic Magnetic Monopoles with IceCube

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory is a large Cherenkov detector instrumenting $1\,\mathrm{km}^3$ of Antarctic ice. The detector can be used to search for signatures of particle physics beyond the Standard Model. Here, we describe the search for non-relativistic, magnetic monopoles as remnants of the GUT (Grand Unified Theory) era shortly after the Big Bang. These monopoles may catalyze the decay of nucleons via the Rubakov-Callan effect with a cross section suggested to be in the range of $10^{-27}\,\mathrm{cm^2}$ to $10^{-21}\,\mathrm{cm^2}$. In IceCube, the Cherenkov light from nucleon decays along the monopole trajectory would produce a characteristic hit pattern. This paper presents the results of an analysis of first data taken from May 2011 until May 2012 with a dedicated slow-particle trigger for DeepCore, a subdetector of IceCube. A second analysis provides better sensitivity for the brightest non-relativistic monopoles using data taken from May 2009 until May 2010. In both analyses no monopole signal was observed. For catalysis cross sections of $10^{-22}\,(10^{-24})\,\mathrm{cm^2}$ the flux of non-relativistic GUT monopoles is constrained up to a level of $\Phi_{90} \le 10^{-18}\,(10^{-17})\,\mathrm{cm^{-2}s^{-1}sr^{-1}}$ at a 90% confidence level, which is three orders of magnitude below the Parker bound. The limits assume a dominant decay of the proton into a positron and a neutral pion. These results improve the current best experimental limits by one to two orders of magnitude, for a wide range of assumed speeds and catalysis cross sections.Comment: 20 pages, 20 figure

Characterization of the Atmospheric Muon Flux in IceCube

Muons produced in atmospheric cosmic ray showers account for the by far dominant part of the event yield in large-volume underground particle detectors. The IceCube detector, with an instrumented volume of about a cubic kilometer, has the potential to conduct unique investigations on atmospheric muons by exploiting the large collection area and the possibility to track particles over a long distance. Through detailed reconstruction of energy deposition along the tracks, the characteristics of muon bundles can be quantified, and individual particles of exceptionally high energy identified. The data can then be used to constrain the cosmic ray primary flux and the contribution to atmospheric lepton fluxes from prompt decays of short-lived hadrons. In this paper, techniques for the extraction of physical measurements from atmospheric muon events are described and first results are presented. The multiplicity spectrum of TeV muons in cosmic ray air showers for primaries in the energy range from the knee to the ankle is derived and found to be consistent with recent results from surface detectors. The single muon energy spectrum is determined up to PeV energies and shows a clear indication for the emergence of a distinct spectral component from prompt decays of short-lived hadrons. The magnitude of the prompt flux, which should include a substantial contribution from light vector meson di-muon decays, is consistent with current theoretical predictions.Comment: 36 pages, 39 figure

A combined maximum-likelihood analysis of the high-energy astrophysical neutrino flux measured with IceCube

Evidence for an extraterrestrial flux of high-energy neutrinos has now been found in multiple searches with the IceCube detector. The first solid evidence was provided by a search for neutrino events with deposited energies $\gtrsim30$ TeV and interaction vertices inside the instrumented volume. Recent analyses suggest that the extraterrestrial flux extends to lower energies and is also visible with throughgoing, $\nu_\mu$-induced tracks from the Northern hemisphere. Here, we combine the results from six different IceCube searches for astrophysical neutrinos in a maximum-likelihood analysis. The combined event sample features high-statistics samples of shower-like and track-like events. The data are fit in up to three observables: energy, zenith angle and event topology. Assuming the astrophysical neutrino flux to be isotropic and to consist of equal flavors at Earth, the all-flavor spectrum with neutrino energies between 25 TeV and 2.8 PeV is well described by an unbroken power law with best-fit spectral index $-2.50\pm0.09$ and a flux at 100 TeV of $\left(6.7_{-1.2}^{+1.1}\right)\cdot10^{-18}\,\mathrm{GeV}^{-1}\mathrm{s}^{-1}\mathrm{sr}^{-1}\mathrm{cm}^{-2}$. Under the same assumptions, an unbroken power law with index $-2$ is disfavored with a significance of 3.8 $\sigma$ ($p=0.0066\%$) with respect to the best fit. This significance is reduced to 2.1 $\sigma$ ($p=1.7\%$) if instead we compare the best fit to a spectrum with index $-2$ that has an exponential cut-off at high energies. Allowing the electron neutrino flux to deviate from the other two flavors, we find a $\nu_e$ fraction of $0.18\pm0.11$ at Earth. The sole production of electron neutrinos, which would be characteristic of neutron-decay dominated sources, is rejected with a significance of 3.6 $\sigma$ ($p=0.014\%$).Comment: 16 pages, 10 figures; accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal; updated one referenc

Determining neutrino oscillation parameters from atmospheric muon neutrino disappearance with three years of IceCube DeepCore data

We present a measurement of neutrino oscillations via atmospheric muon neutrino disappearance with three years of data of the completed IceCube neutrino detector. DeepCore, a region of denser instrumentation, enables the detection and reconstruction of atmospheric muon neutrinos between 10 GeV and 100 GeV, where a strong disappearance signal is expected. The detector volume surrounding DeepCore is used as a veto region to suppress the atmospheric muon background. Neutrino events are selected where the detected Cherenkov photons of the secondary particles minimally scatter, and the neutrino energy and arrival direction are reconstructed. Both variables are used to obtain the neutrino oscillation parameters from the data, with the best fit given by $\Delta m^2_{32}=2.72^{+0.19}_{-0.20}\times 10^{-3}\,\mathrm{eV}^2$ and $\sin^2\theta_{23} = 0.53^{+0.09}_{-0.12}$ (normal mass hierarchy assumed). The results are compatible and comparable in precision to those of dedicated oscillation experiments.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figure

Flavor Ratio of Astrophysical Neutrinos above 35 TeV in IceCube

A diffuse flux of astrophysical neutrinos above $100\,\mathrm{TeV}$ has been observed at the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. Here we extend this analysis to probe the astrophysical flux down to $35\,\mathrm{TeV}$ and analyze its flavor composition by classifying events as showers or tracks. Taking advantage of lower atmospheric backgrounds for shower-like events, we obtain a shower-biased sample containing 129 showers and 8 tracks collected in three years from 2010 to 2013. We demonstrate consistency with the $(f_e:f_{\mu}:f_\tau)_\oplus\approx(1:1:1)_\oplus$ flavor ratio at Earth commonly expected from the averaged oscillations of neutrinos produced by pion decay in distant astrophysical sources. Limits are placed on non-standard flavor compositions that cannot be produced by averaged neutrino oscillations but could arise in exotic physics scenarios. A maximally track-like composition of $(0:1:0)_\oplus$ is excluded at $3.3\sigma$, and a purely shower-like composition of $(1:0:0)_\oplus$ is excluded at $2.3\sigma$.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures. Submitted to PR