October 17, 2001 -- The European Union's Court of Justice has dismissed an action brought by the Netherlands seeking annulment of a directive on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions.

On July 6, 1998, the European Parliament and Council adopted a directive which requires EU member-states, through their patent laws, to protect biotechnological inventions. The directive sets out
which inventions involving plants, animals or the human body may or may not be patented. It requires member-states to allow the patenting, under certain conditions, of inventions which may have
an industrial application making it possible to produce, process or use biological material.

The Netherlands has opposed the genetic manipulation of animals and plants and does not at present allow living biological material capable of reproduction to be patented.

The directive excludes from patentability all processes involving the cloning of human beings, modifying the germ-line genetic identity of human beings and uses of human embryos for industrial or
commercial purposes.