The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 22, 1988
Filed:
Nov. 12, 1986
Takamitsu Suzuki, Nagoya, JP;
Brother Industries, Ltd., , JP;
Abstract
An apparatus for managing a plurality of software vending machines each connected to the apparatus through a communication line and each arranged so that any software program selected by a customer out of a plurality of software programs stored in the machine is duplicated onto an external storing medium. The apparatus communicates with each of the plurality of software vending machines through the communication line. The apparatus stores at least one sotfware program and can detect the frequency of duplication of each program in each of the software vending machines through information sent on the communication line. Software programs are replaced in each of the software vending machines based on their frequency of duplication for a predetermined period of time. The duplicating frequency is corrected so that the detected value of the frequency of duplication is high in inverse proportion to the length of time elapsed from the registration of that program.