Cara Garretson and Patrick Thibodeau

Microsoft Corp. Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates Wednesday ended three days of testimony on the witness stand with a warning that the remedies sought by the nonsettling states will take away Microsoft's incentives to innovate and send his company's multibillion-dollar research and development engine "into a 10-year period of hibernation."

Lawyers for Microsoft Corp. on Monday afternoon put Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates on the stand to detail the devastating effects that the remedies proposed by the states suing Microsoft for antitrust violations would have on the company.

The nine states that did not join the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in settling the antitrust case with Microsoft Corp. plan to propose a set of remedies to the federal judge overseeing the case on Friday.

The nine states that did not join the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in settling the antitrust case with Microsoft Corp. plan to propose a set of remedies to the federal judge overseeing the case on Friday.