Microsoft Corp. on Monday agreed to pay $7 million for U.S. and foreign rights to a number of digital rights management (DRM) patents held by Liquid Audio Inc.â€"a move that strengthens the company's growing DRM arsenal.

Liquid Audio, which provides software, infrastructure and services for the secure digital delivery of media via the Internet, holds several key DRM patents. The U.S. patents cover such technologies as content distribution, audio encoding, digital watermarking, content distribution, lossless compression, secure content transfer to portable devices as well as the ability to honor territorial restrictions for digital music content.

In a statement released Tuesday, Liquid Audio said the terms of the deal include a royalty-free license that will allow it to continue using this patented technology in its digital distribution system.

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