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:
Jan. 16, 2007
Filed:
Oct. 20, 2004
Kohtaroh Yonenaga, Tokyo, JP;
Kohtaroh Yonenaga, Tokyo, JP;
Ricoh Company, Ltd., Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
An image forming apparatus network system, which connects two or more image forming apparatuses on a network, that includes image forming apparatuses which receive image data of the object to be printed, have image creating engines for two or more colors, and have a linked interface that enables intercommunication with other machines. The image forming apparatus includes a remaining toner information acquiring unit that acquires information about amounts of remaining toner of the image creating engines, an image data volume computing unit that computes the amount of image data of objects to be created, and a main controller that selects a linked image forming apparatus in accordance with the amounts of remaining toner and image data and executes image forming operations.