I'm not so sure about this claim. Here's a Microsoft press release from April '99 about digital rights management, which uses the DRM acronym throughout: https:

I'm not so sure about this claim. Here's a Microsoft press release from April '99 about digital rights management, which uses the DRM acronym throughout: https://news.microsoft.com/1999/04/13/microsoft-and-reciprocal-extend-strategic-alliance-to-deliver-digital-rights-management-solution-based-on-windows-media-technologies-4-0/ https://news.microsoft.com/1999/04/13/microsoft-and-reciproc... Seems like they filed for a patent that same month using the same terminology https://patents.google.com/patent/US7103574B1/en https://patents.google.com/patent/US7103574B1/en