LG Electronics Thursday became the latest Android and Chrome OS peddler to bow to Microsoft's patent claims and sign a "patent agreement" that Microsoft said "provides broad coverage under Microsoft's patent portfolio for LG's tablets, mobile phones and other consumer devices running the Android or Chrome OS Platform."

Usually Microsoft brags that it's getting paid for privilege. This time it didn't a word about royalties, merely noting that the "contents of the agreement have not been disclosed," describing the deal as expanding on a pre-existing agreement. That license covered Linux and, as FOSS Patents points out, Android is a Linux fork. So, the new arrangement is assumed to be royalty-bearing.

Microsoft deputy general counsel Horacio Gutierrez said that with LG on board "more than 70% of all Android smartphones sold in the US are now receiving coverage under Microsoft's patent portfolio."

Samsung, HTC, Acer and seven other Android- or Chrome-using merchants are paying Redmond royalties. Microsoft is suing Motorola Mobility and Barnes & Noble for scoffing at its claims.