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:
Dec. 20, 2005
Filed:
Oct. 16, 2000
Philip A. Lodwick, Richfield, MN (US);
Philip A. Lodwick, Richfield, MN (US);
Electronics for Imaging, Inc., Foster City, CA (US);
Abstract
The present invention relates to methods and apparatus for forwarding a print job over a communications network. In particular, the present invention enables a user to obtain print jobs at a location which may be unspecified, and which may be remote from the source of the print job. A print driver is provided which is capable of forwarding one or more print jobs over a network. The print driver may be interfaced with any suitable print job source (e.g., a client device capable of generating a printable document, such as a computer) to obtain a print job. The print job is forwarded from the print driver, over the network, to a spooling server. A printer polling device, which may be used at a location remote from the client device, is capable of polling a spooling server via the network to identify whether any print jobs associated with the printer polling device are available for printing at a printer currently associated with the printer polling device. The spooling server need not initiate contact with the printer through a firewall, since it is polled by the printer polling device. Thus, network security is maintained.