Opinion of the Advocate General — ECLI:EU:C:2019:175
Date: 2019-03-06
Language of the case: Swedish
Subject matter: Intellectual, industrial and commercial property
Procedure: Reference for a preliminary ruling
Origin: Sweden

Request for a preliminary ruling from the Svea hovrätt (Sweden) lodged on 15 December 2017 — Patent-och registreringsverket v Mats Hansson (Case C-705/17) Language of the case: Swedish Referring court Svea hovrätt Parties to the main proceedings Applicant: Patent-och registreringsverket Defendant: Mats Hansson Questions referred 1. Must Article 4(1)(b) of the Trade Marks Directive 1 be interpreted as meaning that the global assessment of all relevant factors which is to be made in an assessment of the likelihood of confusion may be affected by the fact that an element of the trade mark has expressly been excluded from protection on registration, that is to say, that a so-called disclaimer has been entered on registration? 2. If the answer to the first question is in the affirmative, can the disclaimer in such a case affect the global assessment in such a way that the competent authority has regard to the element in question but gives it a more limited importance so that it is not regarded as being distinctive, even if the element would de facto be distinctive and prominent in the earlier trade mark? 3. If the answer to the first question is in the affirmative and the answer to the second question in the negative, can the disclaimer even so affect the global assessment in any other way? ____________ 1 Directive 2008/95/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 22 October 2008 to approximate the laws of the Member States relating to trade marks (OJ 2008, L 299, p. 25).