Patent ID: 7913309

Claim:
A method of information rights management at an information rights management server comprising the steps of: receiving a request from an author for an issue license at the information rights management server for a piece of content, the request comprising information rights policy details selected by the author; issuing an issue license to the author on the basis of the information rights policy details, the issue license comprising information about one or more policy evaluators, each policy evaluator being independent of the information rights management server, the issue license including: a content rights information section; a content reference that identifies the piece of content with respect to an originating application of the piece of content; a content key that is used to encrypt the piece of content; and a policy container that includes claim provider information, and endpoint reference, an authorization token type, claim type requirements, and holds information about how to combine results from each of the policy evaluators; receiving a request for a use license from a recipient of the piece of content; sending an evaluation request to each of the policy evaluators, the evaluation request including one or more authorization tokens and a list of requested actions selected by the recipient, the authorization tokens being provided by an identity provider and to authenticate the recipient to the information rights management server; and issuing the use license on the basis of responses received from the policy evaluators.