ARBITRABILITY OF COMPETITION LAW (ANTITRUST) DISPUTES

The expansion of arbitral competence in handling competition law/antitrust matters can be seen as a global trend, however not an entirely uniform one. In certain states the legitimate interest of the state in controlling or preventing monopolies and other market practices is readily appreciated. The main test for each arbitral tribunal is if the competition law/antitrust dispute is arbitrable under the applicable law. The arbitrability determines whether certain types of disputes can be submitted to arbitration or a contrario whether they fall within the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts. There are nevertheless situations when the existence of mandatory court jurisdiction impacts arbitrability. This is so when considerations of international public policy dictate the mandatory jurisdiction of the court. Historically, courts would not enforce of contractual arbitration clauses covering competition law/antitrust disputes, even if the parties had specifically agreed to arbitrate this kind of matters. Fortunately, the underlying premise that competition law, respectively the antitrust issues are per se non arbitrable is no longer universally accepted. The theory and practice of the courts both in the European Union and the United States, at least in dicta, has proven that in the context of international commercial arbitration “second look” is possible. In this respect the jurisprudence of the Republic of Macedonia does not have specific indications as for the arbitrability of the competition law and antitrust in particular. However, it is important to note that there is a tendency worldwide of increasing the role of international commercial arbitration in the enforcement of the domestic competition law.

Integrated Transversal Equalizers in High-Speed Fiber-Optic Systems

Intersymbol interference (ISI) caused by intermodal dispersion in multimode fibers is the major limiting factor in the achievable data rate or transmission distance in high-speed multimode fiber-optic links for local area networks applications. Compared with optical-domain and other electrical-domain dispersion compensation methods, equalization with transversal filters based on distributed circuit techniques presents a cost-effective and low-power solution. The design of integrated distributed transversal equalizers is described in detail with focus on delay lines and gain stages. This seven-tap distributed transversal equalizer prototype has been implemented in a commercial 0.18-µm SiGe BiCMOS process for 10-Gb/s multimode fiber-optic links. A seven-tap distributed transversal equalizer reduces the ISI of a 10-Gb/s signal after 800 m of 50-µm multimode fiber from 5 to 1.38 dB, and improves the bit-error rate from about 10^-5 to less than 10^-12

The Interaction between Priority and Novelty as Fundamentals for Patent Protection

The priority and novelty are one of the most important centers of the patent law systems worldwide. In light of these two key points, the methodology of this article envisages the comparison between these two points globally and regionally, focusing on the Republic of Macedonia and Kosovo. This article concentrates firstly in structuring the patent law in the context of the first-to-file system. By doing so the article presents the overall structure of the novelty provisions in the international legal framework as well as in the Republic of Macedonia and Kosovo, by linking its similarities and variances. The accent on the novelty is then brought into correlation with the priority. Furthermore, the difference between the concepts of novelty and priority is explained by illuminating the detailed aspect of certain international and domestic rules. The discussion that follows elaborates on the basic principles and general terms of priority and novelty. In such way the article distinguishes several fundamental issues connected with the present setting of the priority right, among which the most important issue of applying the priority rule also to the states that are not members of the Paris Union. The authors conclude with some observations on continuity and change in the patent system

Microcavity-integrated graphene photodetector

The monolithic integration of novel nanomaterials with mature and established technologies has considerably widened the scope and potential of nanophotonics. For example, the integration of single semiconductor quantum dots into photonic crystals has enabled highly efficient single-photon sources. Recently, there has also been an increasing interest in using graphene - a single atomic layer of carbon - for optoelectronic devices. However, being an inherently weak optical absorber (only 2.3 % absorption), graphene has to be incorporated into a high-performance optical resonator or waveguide to increase the absorption and take full advantage of its unique optical properties. Here, we demonstrate that by monolithically integrating graphene with a Fabry-Perot microcavity, the optical absorption is 26-fold enhanced, reaching values >60 %. We present a graphene-based microcavity photodetector with record responsivity of 21 mA/W. Our approach can be applied to a variety of other graphene devices, such as electro-absorption modulators, variable optical attenuators, or light emitters, and provides a new route to graphene photonics with the potential for applications in communications, security, sensing and spectroscopy.Comment: 19 pages, 4 figure

Submonolayer Quantum Dots for High Speed Surface Emitting Lasers

We report on progress in growth and applications of submonolayer (SML) quantum dots (QDs) in high-speed vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). SML deposition enables controlled formation of high density QD arrays with good size and shape uniformity. Further increase in excitonic absorption and gain is possible with vertical stacking of SML QDs using ultrathin spacer layers. Vertically correlated, tilted or anticorrelated arrangements of the SML islands are realized and allow QD strain and wavefunction engineering. Respectively, both TE and TM polarizations of the luminescence can be achieved in the edge-emission using the same constituting materials. SML QDs provide ultrahigh modal gain, reduced temperature depletion and gain saturation effects when used in active media in laser diodes. Temperature robustness up to 100 °C for 0.98 μm range vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) is realized in the continuous wave regime. An open eye 20 Gb/s operation with bit error rates better than 10−12has been achieved in a temperature range 25–85 °Cwithout current adjustment. Relaxation oscillations up to ∼30 GHz have been realized indicating feasibility of 40 Gb/s signal transmission