Court of Justice 14 June 2001, C-377/98 (Kingdom of the Netherlands v European Parliament and Council of the European Union.)

Opinion of the Advocate-General Opinion of the Advocate-General 1. In this case the Netherlands has brought an action under Article 173 of the EC Treaty (now, after amendment, Article 230 EC) seeking annulment of Directive 98/44 on the legal protection of biotechnological inventions. The Directive 2. Chapter I (Articles 1 to 7) of the Directive is entitled Patentability. 3.