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:
May. 12, 1998
Filed:
Sep. 20, 1996
Yuji Yamashita, Osaka, JP;
Mita Industries Co. Ltd, Osaka, JP;
Abstract
In a copier, to execute renewal of a maintenance contract with ease and without fail, a current date is compared with a contract expiry date, and a current total count of copies is compared with a count prescribed by the contract. As long as the contract is valid, the copier is operated in a normal copying mode. Meanwhile, the difference between the current count and the contract count is monitored every time a copying operation takes place. When the contract count is exceeded, the copier displays a message indicating expiry of the contract and requesting renewal of the contract in order to notify its user that the contract count has been exceeded. The copier then switches to a restricted copying operation mode. If the user chooses to renew the contract, the user contacts a service provider, so that the service provider checks the state of the contract for the copier and performs a procedure for renewing the contract.