Has Microsoft won its freedom...

Before Bill Gates gets carried away and throws another few billion into his charitable fundation, and before the stock traders get too excited and think everything is rosy in Microsoft land, they should take note of one rather arcane - but highly significant - paragraph tacked onto the end of yesterday's ruling:

"The judgment of the District Court is affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded in part. We vacate in full the Final Judgment embodying the remedial order, and remand the case to the District Court for reassignment to a different trial judge for further proceedings consistent with this opinion."

To put that in plain English: Microsoft did act illegally. Judge Jackson's fondness for a soundbite may have thrown an almighty spanner in the works, but the chances are the new court will rule also rule against the company.

So why the euphoria in Seattle?

The main reason is the amount of time this process will consume. The current round of trials began way back in the autumn of 1997 - it's taken nearly four years to find out that the judge wasn't fit to try the company in the first place.

So what chance a speedy resolution now? Slim. And we mean super-model slim.

The last straw the anti-Microsoft brigade have to clutch at is the now infamous 'IBM parallel' - i.e. what happened to Big Blue when it had similar monopoly ructions back in the 80s. It took its eye off the ball, allowed its competitors back in the game, and essentially did the courts' work for them. By spending so much time and effort fighting monopoly allegations, it somehow managed to break itself up.

Will this happen to Microsoft? Unlikely. This is one case where history won't repeat itself. Over the last four years, Microsoft has successfully brought out two major operating system releases - Win98 and Win2000 - with a third, WinXP, just round the corner. No sign there of a distracted company.

We're promised a billion dollar marketing bonanza for the latter, which will dwarf even Microsoft's legal fees. Marketing is one area the company has rarely put a foot wrong - and the ongoing trials will not trip it up. And let's not forget that George W Bush is a free market freak and will be loathe to place handcuffs on any company .

So while all is not lost for those who think Gates and co have acted against the best interests of the consumer, we can expect at least another year (or two, or three...) before anything significant will happen to upset the status quo.

In the meantime, Microsoft will continue to dominate the market. The only hope for those who wish to dethrone Mr Gates is to come up with a truly spectacular innovation - and not sell out to the Seattle giant.

Where do you want to go today? If you're feeling brave, it should be the patent office...