Microsoft Chairman and Chief Software Architect, Bill Gates, addressed media and Microsoft employees in a conference call.
“The legal process can be hard on anyone who goes through it, and the last four years have been challenging for all of us here at Microsoft and for me personally,” said Gates. “But despite the many twists and turns of the case, I’ve always had faith in our company, in our employees and in the magic of the software we are creating.”
Microsoft isn’t completely free of the charges yet. The appeals court only vacated the decision of the lower court — the charges were not dismissed. The case will now be sent back to a lower court — the appeals court also ordered that a new judge be assigned to the case.
“Today’s decision overturned much of the District Court’s ruling, but not all of it. Naturally, we’ll be reviewing the ruling in the days ahead and determining what actions we now need to take in response to these issues,” said Gates. “Most of the licensing provisions cited by the court were discontinued years ago. However, we’ll be making a review of our licensing provisions in light of today’s decision. We will also continue to work hard to resolve the remaining issues without continued need for litigation.”
Gates thanked the thousands of people who showed support for the company during the last few years. He also took time to thank the employees of Microsoft for the “amazing job that they have done in difficult circumstances.”
“I’m incredibly optimistic about the future,” said Gates.