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:
Sep. 19, 2006
Filed:
Oct. 04, 2001
Hironobu Nakata, Itami, JP;
Takeshi Morikawa, Itami, JP;
Tatsuji Hirakawa, Aichi-Ken, JP;
Hiroshi Sumiyama, Aichi-Ken, JP;
Munetaka Fujita, Toyokawa, JP;
Hironobu Nakata, Itami, JP;
Takeshi Morikawa, Itami, JP;
Tatsuji Hirakawa, Aichi-Ken, JP;
Hiroshi Sumiyama, Aichi-Ken, JP;
Munetaka Fujita, Toyokawa, JP;
Minolta Co., Ltd., Osaka, JP;
Abstract
An image forming system and image forming apparatus capable of suppressing reduced productivity and avoiding the troublesome task of sorting output materials even when image formation becomes impossible. The system and apparatus include a transfer controller that permits job data transfer to another image forming apparatus if image formation of the job data has not started when an impaired image forming state is detected in an image forming apparatus, and that prohibits job data transfer to another image forming apparatus if image formation of job data has already started. In this way, the image formation process can be executed without processing congestion by having another image forming apparatus perform the job data image formation. Moreover, the task of sorting the output material is unnecessary because the job data is not dispersed between the transfer origin and the transfer destination.