Microsoft Corp. issued the following statement, attributable to General Counsel Brad Smith, on the extension of the communications protocol licensing provisions in its U.S. consent decree:

Microsoft today has voluntarily agreed to extend for two additional years part of the U.S. consent decree. This agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice and state attorneys general will extend until November 2009 the part of the decree related to our licensing program for communications protocols. The agreement requires court approval.

Microsoft is also announcing today that it has decided that, even after the expiration of these provisions of the consent decree, it will continue on a voluntary basis to document and license the communications protocols in the Windows desktop operating system that are used to interoperate with Windows server OS products.

The result of the agreement today, and Microsoft’s additional announcements, is that the licensing of these protocols will effectively become an ongoing part of Microsoft’s regular product development and business processes.