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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-GB link="#0563C1" vlink="#954F72"><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal>Dear colleagues,<o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='color:black'>My name is Francisco Florez-Revuelta and I am an Associate Professor at the University of Alicante, Spain, where I do research in computer vision and machine learning.</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='color:black'>I am currently collaborating with Unisys in a project related to “Search Image for Trade Marks” for the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). EUIPO is responsible for managing the EU trade mark and the registered Community design. EUIPO also works with the IP offices of the EU Member States and international partners to offer a similar registration experience for trade marks and designs across Europe and worldwide. For more information about EUIPO’s activities, please visit<span class=m7554122898779383637apple-converted-space> </span><a href="https://mail.euipo.europa.eu/owa/redir.aspx?C=DZZTGTe0wMbtWp82Ji0-xNXTtkXPIZTQr-sQVLDGjOixxFxmEVzUCA..&URL=https%3a%2f%2feuipo.europa.eu" target="_blank"><span style='color:purple'>https://euipo.europa.eu</span></a></span>.<span style='color:black'> </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='color:black'>A trade mark may consist of any signs capable of being represented graphically, particularly words, including personal names, designs, letters, numerals, the shape of goods or of their packaging, provided that such signs are capable of distinguishing the goods or services of one undertaking from those of other undertakings. One of the tasks of EUIPO is to assess the degree of similarity between trade marks in order to find if there is a likelihood of confusion between them. </span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=m7554122898779383637msoplaintext style='margin:0cm;margin-bottom:.0001pt'><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri",sans-serif;color:black'>Nowadays, users and IP Office experts can perform searches of registered trade marks based on a query image using eSearch (<a href="https://mail.euipo.europa.eu/owa/redir.aspx?C=VuQbio4R0JE2ajindEIJH7zgQtOWUNvOPgMxRRvWepqxxFxmEVzUCA..&URL=https%3a%2f%2feuipo.europa.eu%2feSearch%2f" target="_blank"><span style='color:purple'>https://euipo.europa.eu/eSearch/</span></a>), a tool offered by EUIPO for image-based trade mark retrieval. A project has been launched to identify the best image retrieval solutions, emerging technologies and lead experts that might allow EUIPO to achieve this vision. You can find more information about our ECP3 search image for trade marks project here:<span class=m7554122898779383637apple-converted-space> </span><a href="https://mail.euipo.europa.eu/owa/redir.aspx?C=XaVSFZ-ZnN3NmgptiyrB3tM6NH8YVn8axSJQjB6XGuyxxFxmEVzUCA..&URL=https%3a%2f%2feuipo.europa.eu%2ftunnel-web%2fsecure%2fwebdav%2fguest%2fdocument_library%2fcontentPdfs%2fabout_euipo%2flines_of_action%2fProject%2520card%2520ECP3_en.pdf" target="_blank"><span style='color:purple'>https://euipo.europa.eu/tunnel-web/secure/webdav/guest/document_library/contentPdfs/about_euipo/lines_of_action/Project%20card%20ECP3_en.pdf</span></a></span><o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='color:black'>In this project, EUIPO aims to identify image retrieval solutions, and might be looking for experts doing research or innovation in content-based trade mark or image retrieval.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='color:black'>If you are interested in contributing or in hearing more about this project, please contact me via email to <a href="mailto:francisco.florez@ua.es">francisco.florez@ua.es</a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><span style='color:black'>Best regards,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:black'> Paco Florez</span><o:p></o:p></p><div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;color:black;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB'><hr size=4 width="100%" align=center></span></div><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=ES style='font-size:10.0pt;color:black;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB'>Francisco (Paco) Flórez-Revuelta</span><span lang=ES style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Times New Roman",serif;color:black;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB'><a href="http://www.dtic.ua.es/~florez/"><span lang=ES style='color:blue'>http://www.dtic.ua.es/~florez/</span></a></span><span lang=ES style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB'><a href="mailto:francisco.florez@ua.es"><span style='color:blue'>francisco.florez@ua.es</span></a> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB'>Associate Professor<span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB'>Department of Computing Technology, Polytechnic University College</span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:black;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB'>University of Alicante<span style='color:black'><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:10.0pt;background:white;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB'>Carretera San Vicente s/n, 03690 San Vicente del Raspeig, Alicante (Spain)</span><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:black;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:10.0pt;color:black;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB'><a href="https://www.facebook.com/francisco.florez" target="_blank"><span style='color:purple'>Facebook</span></a> – <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/franciscoflorezrevuelta" target="_blank"><span style='color:purple'>LinkedIn</span></a> – <a href="https://twitter.com/fflorezrevuelta" target="_blank"><span style='color:purple'>Twitter</span></a> – <a href="http://www.slideshare.net/franciscoflorez" target="_blank"><span style='color:purple'>Slideshare</span></a> – <a href="http://scholar.google.es/citations?sortby=pubdate&hl=es&user=ApaQimYAAAAJ&view_op=list_works" target="_blank"><span style='color:purple'>Google Scholar</span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p><div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><span style='font-size:10.5pt;color:black;mso-fareast-language:EN-GB'><hr size=4 width="100%" align=center></span></div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='mso-fareast-language:EN-GB'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'> <o:p></o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p></div></body></html>