US20030133147A1 - Billing process for printing systems - Google Patents
Billing process for printing systems Download PDFInfo
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- US20030133147A1 US20030133147A1 US10/046,216 US4621602A US2003133147A1 US 20030133147 A1 US20030133147 A1 US 20030133147A1 US 4621602 A US4621602 A US 4621602A US 2003133147 A1 US2003133147 A1 US 2003133147A1
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- Prior art keywords
- printing system
- customer
- billing
- message
- data
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- 238000000034 method Methods 0.000 title claims abstract description 49
- 230000008569 process Effects 0.000 title claims abstract description 32
- 238000005259 measurement Methods 0.000 claims abstract description 10
- 238000013475 authorization Methods 0.000 claims description 14
- 230000004044 response Effects 0.000 claims 1
- 230000005540 biological transmission Effects 0.000 description 7
- 230000008901 benefit Effects 0.000 description 4
- 239000004973 liquid crystal related substance Substances 0.000 description 4
- 238000010586 diagram Methods 0.000 description 3
- 230000006870 function Effects 0.000 description 2
- 230000007246 mechanism Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000012986 modification Methods 0.000 description 1
- 230000004048 modification Effects 0.000 description 1
- 238000012546 transfer Methods 0.000 description 1
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Classifications
-
- H—ELECTRICITY
- H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
- H04N—PICTORIAL COMMUNICATION, e.g. TELEVISION
- H04N1/00—Scanning, transmission or reproduction of documents or the like, e.g. facsimile transmission; Details thereof
- H04N1/00002—Diagnosis, testing or measuring; Detecting, analysing or monitoring not otherwise provided for
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- G—PHYSICS
- G03—PHOTOGRAPHY; CINEMATOGRAPHY; ANALOGOUS TECHNIQUES USING WAVES OTHER THAN OPTICAL WAVES; ELECTROGRAPHY; HOLOGRAPHY
- G03G—ELECTROGRAPHY; ELECTROPHOTOGRAPHY; MAGNETOGRAPHY
- G03G21/00—Arrangements not provided for by groups G03G13/00 - G03G19/00, e.g. cleaning, elimination of residual charge
- G03G21/02—Counting the number of copies; Billing
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
- G06F3/00—Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements
- G06F3/12—Digital output to print unit, e.g. line printer, chain printer
- G06F3/1201—Dedicated interfaces to print systems
- G06F3/1202—Dedicated interfaces to print systems specifically adapted to achieve a particular effect
- G06F3/1218—Reducing or saving of used resources, e.g. avoiding waste of consumables or improving usage of hardware resources
- G06F3/1219—Reducing or saving of used resources, e.g. avoiding waste of consumables or improving usage of hardware resources with regard to consumables, e.g. ink, toner, paper
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
- G06F3/00—Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements
- G06F3/12—Digital output to print unit, e.g. line printer, chain printer
- G06F3/1201—Dedicated interfaces to print systems
- G06F3/1223—Dedicated interfaces to print systems specifically adapted to use a particular technique
- G06F3/1237—Print job management
- G06F3/1273—Print job history, e.g. logging, accounting, tracking
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06F—ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING
- G06F3/00—Input arrangements for transferring data to be processed into a form capable of being handled by the computer; Output arrangements for transferring data from processing unit to output unit, e.g. interface arrangements
- G06F3/12—Digital output to print unit, e.g. line printer, chain printer
- G06F3/1201—Dedicated interfaces to print systems
- G06F3/1278—Dedicated interfaces to print systems specifically adapted to adopt a particular infrastructure
- G06F3/1285—Remote printer device, e.g. being remote from client or server
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- G06Q20/00—Payment architectures, schemes or protocols
- G06Q20/08—Payment architectures
- G06Q20/20—Point-of-sale [POS] network systems
- G06Q20/209—Specified transaction journal output feature, e.g. printed receipt or voice output
-
- G—PHYSICS
- G06—COMPUTING; CALCULATING OR COUNTING
- G06Q—INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY [ICT] SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES; SYSTEMS OR METHODS SPECIALLY ADAPTED FOR ADMINISTRATIVE, COMMERCIAL, FINANCIAL, MANAGERIAL OR SUPERVISORY PURPOSES, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
- G06Q30/00—Commerce
- G06Q30/02—Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
- G06Q30/0283—Price estimation or determination
Definitions
- the invention generally relates to printing systems, and in particular to the process of billing for the copies or prints produced by a customer of a printing system.
- FIG. 1 illustrates the basic components of a conventional printing system.
- the printing system is controlled by controller 100 that receives image data from scanner 110 and outputs printing data to the printer 150 .
- the printer 150 comprises a paper supply and a finisher for performing the above mentioned system functions.
- the controller 100 includes an image input control 120 and image output control 140 for controlling the image data transfer from and to the system control 130 . Further, there is a user interface 160 provided that may be a liquid crystal display or another kind of mini display in front of the printing system.
- the controller 100 further includes a memory 170 for storing product usage data indicating measurements of the actual use of the printing system, such as copy counts. Further, the controller 100 may include a network interface 180 for connecting the printing system to a local or global network or to a phone line.
- FIG. 2 A conventional billing process of such a printing system according to the prior art is illustrated in FIG. 2.
- the process starts with step 210 in which the customer reads the copy count.
- the customer then sends a hard copy document to the billing service in step 220 for getting the copy count over to the billing service, and the billing service generates a bill (step 230 ).
- the generated hard copy bill is then sent back to the customer in step 240 , and the customer can now authorize the bill (step 250 ). If the customer authorizes the bill he initiates payment, for instance by sending a check or an authorization to debit from his account, to the billing service (step 260 ).
- FIG. 3 Another billing process according to the prior art is depicted in FIG. 3.
- the printing system transmits product usage information to the billing service via a phone line (step 310 ).
- the billing service then generates a bill based on the received information and sends the bill to the customer via a phone line in step 320 .
- the customer authorizes the bill and sends the authorized bill back to the billing service.
- the present invention has been made in consideration of the above situation, and provides a method of performing a billing process for the copies or prints produced by a customer of a printing system.
- the printing system comprises a memory storing product usage data indicating a measurement of the actual use of the printing system.
- the method comprises: 1) in the printing system, accessing the memory to retrieve the product usage data; 2) calculating billing data using the retrieved product usage data; 3) presenting a bill to the customer based on the billing data; 4) receiving user input from the customer indicating whether the customer authorizes the billing data; and 5) if the user input indicates that the customer has authorized the billing data, sending a message from the printing system to a billing service, where the message includes information indicating the authorized billing data.
- a printing system that comprises: a) a memory storing product usage data indicating a measurement of the actual use of the printing system by a customer; b) a billing control unit for accessing the memory to retrieve said product usage data, and for calculating billing data using the retrieved product usage data; c) a user interface message delivery subsystem for presenting a bill to the customer based on said billing data and for receiving user input from the customer indicating whether the customer authorizes the billing data; and d) a message sending unit for sending a message from the printing system to a billing service if said user input indicates that the customer has authorized the billing data, the message including information indicating the authorized billing data.
- FIG. 1 illustrates a printing system according to the prior art
- FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a first billing process according to the prior art
- FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a second billing process according to the prior art
- FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram illustrating the information flow of the billing processes according to the prior art
- FIG. 5 illustrates a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention
- FIG. 6 is a sequence diagram illustrating the information flow of the billing process according to the invention.
- FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating the billing process according to an embodiment of the present invention.
- FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating the billing process according to another embodiment of the present invention.
- the system differs from that depicted in FIG. 1 in that the controller 500 further comprises a billing module 510 .
- the billing module 510 is a software or hardware component that may be implemented on-board and that allows the system control 130 to control the billing process.
- the billing module 510 together with the system control 130 form a billing control unit of the printing system.
- the invention allows for generating bills locally by the printer so that there is no need to send product usage information from the printing system to the billing service and to send back a bill from the billing service to the printing system.
- FIG. 6 is an information flow diagram illustrating the process of the invention. Since the bill is generated directly by the printing system, the bill can be authorized before any transmission to the billing service is done. The printing system then sends the authorized billing details to the billing service.
- a first embodiment of the billing process according to the invention is illustrated in FIG. 7.
- the printing system reads the internal counter of the printing system.
- the counter counts the copies or prints that have been produced by the customer of the printing system.
- the copy count is product usage data that indicates a measurement of the actual use of the printing system.
- Other common product usage data include meter readings, information on the use of printing sub-systems such as sub-units for binding, scanning, stapling, stitching, shrink wrapping, etc and a measure of the paper and toner consumption.
- This data is stored in memory 170 and read in step 710 by the system control unit 130 when executing the billing process under control of billing module 510 .
- the printing system uses the read product usage data to calculate billing data and present a bill based on the billing data to the customer (step 720 ).
- the billing data may include the amount of money to be paid by the customer, and the currency.
- the billing data includes a value of an arbitrary unit that can be used by the printing system and/or the billing service to determine the amount of money to be paid by the customer.
- the bill that is presented by the printing system to the customer is displayed on the printing system's display such as a liquid crystal display.
- the bill is presented to the customer by sending the bill through the network interface 180 to a remote computer system of the customer that then displays the bill on a computer monitor of the remote system.
- the printing system obtains the authorization from the customer in step 730 . If the bill was presented to the customer using the printing system's liquid crystal display, authorization may be done by the customer by using the keyboard of the printing system. If the display of the printing system is a touch screen, the customer might use the display itself to authorize the bill. If the bill is presented to the customer using a remote computer system, the customer uses the keyboard of the remote computer system for entering his authorization, and authorization data are then sent back to the printing system using network interface 180 . Authorization may also be performed as a default option, i.e., if the customer has not rejected or modified proposed billing within a specified time then the billing data is deemed accepted and the bill authorized.
- the printing system sends a message to the billing service for informing the billing service on the billing data and the authorization by the customer.
- the message may be sent via phone line or via internet in case the printing system is connected to the internet. This can for instance be the case if the printing system is connected to a local area network (LAN) by network interface 180 where the LAN is connected to the internet.
- LAN local area network
- the message including the authorized billing details may be sent from the printing system to the billing service by electronic mail.
- the message can be encrypted for security reasons.
- the information that is sent from the printing system to the billing service in step 740 indicates the amount of money that the customer has authorized for payment.
- the message can further include electronic banking data that enables the billing service to debit the customer's account for settling the payment.
- FIG. 8 A second, more detailed embodiment of how the billing process according to the invention can be performed is depicted in FIG. 8.
- a menu is displayed to the customer in step 805 using the liquid crystal display of the printing system or the computer monitor of a remote computer system.
- the menu includes several menu items such as a system configuration item, a service item and a billing item.
- the customer selects the billing item in step 810 to proceed with the billing process.
- step 815 The customer is then requested in step 815 to input a period of time for which he wishes to proceed. For instance, if the customer wishes to pay for the copies or prints produced in the last month, the customer inputs the last month as period of time in step 815 . There might be a default value that is chosen if the customer does not input a period of time in step 815 . The default period may for instance be the period starting from the day of last payment and ending at the end of the last month or quarter.
- the printing system retrieves the product usage data from memory 170 in step 820 and calculates the billing data in step 825 .
- the printing system receives an input from the customer in step 835 indicating whether the customer authorizes the bill or not. If the customer has input an authorization, the printing system decides in step 840 to proceed with generating and sending the authorized billing details to the billing service in steps 845 and 850 .
- step 855 If the customer fails to authorize the bill, or if the customer decides in step 855 to proceed with the billing process, for instance to pay for the copies or prints produced in another period of time, the process returns to step 815 .
- the message sent from the printing system to the billing service to inform the billing service on the authorized billing details might be encrypted for security reasons. Further, extra security can be provided by requiring the customer to enter a password when selecting the billing item of the menu or when authorizing the bill. Further, the printing system might include a fingerprint identification option that further increases the process security.
- the present invention has many advantages that derive from generating print volume bills locally at the printing system.
- One advantage is that there is only one message transmission necessary so that the billing process is expedited and simplified so that the risk of transmission errors is reduced.
- Another advantage is that the invention provides a paperless billing technique that leads to low billing and administration costs.
- the invention can be easily implemented since the bill is generated by the printing system just by using a software or hardware module and the pre-existing printer user interface.
- security provisions can be easily enabled for instance through fingerprint identification.
Abstract
Description
- 1. Field of the Invention
- The invention generally relates to printing systems, and in particular to the process of billing for the copies or prints produced by a customer of a printing system.
- 2. Description of the Related Art
- Current printing systems such as electronic reprographic systems, copying machines or electronic printing machines are typically capable of counting pages. For customer records or for billing purposes, these systems comprise accounting mechanisms for computing the number of pages that are printed. Besides the copy count, these systems may further acquire other information for billing purposes such as measurements of the actual use of a wide range of system functions, including binding, scanning, stapling, stitching, shrink wrapping, etc. Further, the paper and toner consumption can be monitored. This information can then be used when generating the bill.
- FIG. 1 illustrates the basic components of a conventional printing system. The printing system is controlled by
controller 100 that receives image data fromscanner 110 and outputs printing data to theprinter 150. Theprinter 150 comprises a paper supply and a finisher for performing the above mentioned system functions. - The
controller 100 includes animage input control 120 andimage output control 140 for controlling the image data transfer from and to thesystem control 130. Further, there is auser interface 160 provided that may be a liquid crystal display or another kind of mini display in front of the printing system. Thecontroller 100 further includes amemory 170 for storing product usage data indicating measurements of the actual use of the printing system, such as copy counts. Further, thecontroller 100 may include anetwork interface 180 for connecting the printing system to a local or global network or to a phone line. - A conventional billing process of such a printing system according to the prior art is illustrated in FIG. 2. The process starts with
step 210 in which the customer reads the copy count. The customer then sends a hard copy document to the billing service instep 220 for getting the copy count over to the billing service, and the billing service generates a bill (step 230). The generated hard copy bill is then sent back to the customer instep 240, and the customer can now authorize the bill (step 250). If the customer authorizes the bill he initiates payment, for instance by sending a check or an authorization to debit from his account, to the billing service (step 260). - Another billing process according to the prior art is depicted in FIG. 3. In this process, the printing system transmits product usage information to the billing service via a phone line (step310). The billing service then generates a bill based on the received information and sends the bill to the customer via a phone line in
step 320. Then, the customer authorizes the bill and sends the authorized bill back to the billing service. - While the billing process of FIG. 3 improves over that of FIG. 2 in sending the data electronically via phone line, one draw back is still that a total number of three transmissions are required to perform one billing. As can be seen from FIG. 4, the prior art requires first to send product usage information from the printing system to the billing service, then send a bill from the billing service to the customer of the printing system, and finally send an authorization from the customer of the printing system to the billing service. Even if these steps were performed electronically, the process is susceptible to errors in each transmission. In case of transmission errors in at least one of the steps, the billing process cannot be reliably performed anymore. Further, it might be necessary to repeat a transmission what might delay the process.
- The present invention has been made in consideration of the above situation, and provides a method of performing a billing process for the copies or prints produced by a customer of a printing system. The printing system comprises a memory storing product usage data indicating a measurement of the actual use of the printing system. The method comprises: 1) in the printing system, accessing the memory to retrieve the product usage data; 2) calculating billing data using the retrieved product usage data; 3) presenting a bill to the customer based on the billing data; 4) receiving user input from the customer indicating whether the customer authorizes the billing data; and 5) if the user input indicates that the customer has authorized the billing data, sending a message from the printing system to a billing service, where the message includes information indicating the authorized billing data.
- It is further provided a printing system that comprises: a) a memory storing product usage data indicating a measurement of the actual use of the printing system by a customer; b) a billing control unit for accessing the memory to retrieve said product usage data, and for calculating billing data using the retrieved product usage data; c) a user interface message delivery subsystem for presenting a bill to the customer based on said billing data and for receiving user input from the customer indicating whether the customer authorizes the billing data; and d) a message sending unit for sending a message from the printing system to a billing service if said user input indicates that the customer has authorized the billing data, the message including information indicating the authorized billing data.
- The accompanying drawings are incorporated into and form a part of the specification to illustrate several embodiments of the present invention. These drawings together with the description serve to explain the principles of the invention. The drawings are only for the purpose of illustrating examples of how the invention can be made and used and are not to be construed as limiting the invention to only the illustrated and described embodiments. Further features and advantages will become apparent from the following and more particular description of the various embodiments of the invention, as illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:
- FIG. 1 illustrates a printing system according to the prior art;
- FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a first billing process according to the prior art;
- FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a second billing process according to the prior art;
- FIG. 4 is a sequence diagram illustrating the information flow of the billing processes according to the prior art;
- FIG. 5 illustrates a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention;
- FIG. 6 is a sequence diagram illustrating the information flow of the billing process according to the invention;
- FIG. 7 is a flowchart illustrating the billing process according to an embodiment of the present invention; and
- FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating the billing process according to another embodiment of the present invention.
- The illustrative embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the figure drawings wherein like elements and structures are indicated by like reference numbers.
- Referring now to the drawings and in particular to FIG. 5 which illustrates a printing system according to an embodiment of the present invention, the system differs from that depicted in FIG. 1 in that the
controller 500 further comprises abilling module 510. Thebilling module 510 is a software or hardware component that may be implemented on-board and that allows thesystem control 130 to control the billing process. Thus, thebilling module 510 together with thesystem control 130 form a billing control unit of the printing system. - That is, the invention allows for generating bills locally by the printer so that there is no need to send product usage information from the printing system to the billing service and to send back a bill from the billing service to the printing system. This can be seen more clearly from FIG. 6 which is an information flow diagram illustrating the process of the invention. Since the bill is generated directly by the printing system, the bill can be authorized before any transmission to the billing service is done. The printing system then sends the authorized billing details to the billing service.
- A first embodiment of the billing process according to the invention is illustrated in FIG. 7. In
step 710, the printing system reads the internal counter of the printing system. The counter counts the copies or prints that have been produced by the customer of the printing system. The copy count is product usage data that indicates a measurement of the actual use of the printing system. Other common product usage data include meter readings, information on the use of printing sub-systems such as sub-units for binding, scanning, stapling, stitching, shrink wrapping, etc and a measure of the paper and toner consumption. This data is stored inmemory 170 and read instep 710 by thesystem control unit 130 when executing the billing process under control ofbilling module 510. - The printing system then uses the read product usage data to calculate billing data and present a bill based on the billing data to the customer (step720). The billing data may include the amount of money to be paid by the customer, and the currency. In an alternative embodiment the billing data includes a value of an arbitrary unit that can be used by the printing system and/or the billing service to determine the amount of money to be paid by the customer. The bill that is presented by the printing system to the customer is displayed on the printing system's display such as a liquid crystal display. In another embodiment, the bill is presented to the customer by sending the bill through the
network interface 180 to a remote computer system of the customer that then displays the bill on a computer monitor of the remote system. - After the bill is generated and presented to the customer, the printing system obtains the authorization from the customer in
step 730. If the bill was presented to the customer using the printing system's liquid crystal display, authorization may be done by the customer by using the keyboard of the printing system. If the display of the printing system is a touch screen, the customer might use the display itself to authorize the bill. If the bill is presented to the customer using a remote computer system, the customer uses the keyboard of the remote computer system for entering his authorization, and authorization data are then sent back to the printing system usingnetwork interface 180. Authorization may also be performed as a default option, i.e., if the customer has not rejected or modified proposed billing within a specified time then the billing data is deemed accepted and the bill authorized. - When the customer has authorized the presented bill in
step 730, the printing system sends a message to the billing service for informing the billing service on the billing data and the authorization by the customer. The message may be sent via phone line or via internet in case the printing system is connected to the internet. This can for instance be the case if the printing system is connected to a local area network (LAN) bynetwork interface 180 where the LAN is connected to the internet. Then, in one embodiment, the message including the authorized billing details may be sent from the printing system to the billing service by electronic mail. The message can be encrypted for security reasons. - The information that is sent from the printing system to the billing service in
step 740 indicates the amount of money that the customer has authorized for payment. The message can further include electronic banking data that enables the billing service to debit the customer's account for settling the payment. - A second, more detailed embodiment of how the billing process according to the invention can be performed is depicted in FIG. 8. In this process, a menu is displayed to the customer in
step 805 using the liquid crystal display of the printing system or the computer monitor of a remote computer system. The menu includes several menu items such as a system configuration item, a service item and a billing item. The customer selects the billing item instep 810 to proceed with the billing process. - The customer is then requested in
step 815 to input a period of time for which he wishes to proceed. For instance, if the customer wishes to pay for the copies or prints produced in the last month, the customer inputs the last month as period of time instep 815. There might be a default value that is chosen if the customer does not input a period of time instep 815. The default period may for instance be the period starting from the day of last payment and ending at the end of the last month or quarter. - After the period of time has been determined in
step 815, the printing system retrieves the product usage data frommemory 170 instep 820 and calculates the billing data instep 825. After displaying a bill to the customer instep 830 based on the billing data, the printing system receives an input from the customer instep 835 indicating whether the customer authorizes the bill or not. If the customer has input an authorization, the printing system decides instep 840 to proceed with generating and sending the authorized billing details to the billing service insteps - If the customer fails to authorize the bill, or if the customer decides in
step 855 to proceed with the billing process, for instance to pay for the copies or prints produced in another period of time, the process returns to step 815. - As mentioned above, the message sent from the printing system to the billing service to inform the billing service on the authorized billing details might be encrypted for security reasons. Further, extra security can be provided by requiring the customer to enter a password when selecting the billing item of the menu or when authorizing the bill. Further, the printing system might include a fingerprint identification option that further increases the process security.
- As apparent from the foregoing, the present invention has many advantages that derive from generating print volume bills locally at the printing system. One advantage is that there is only one message transmission necessary so that the billing process is expedited and simplified so that the risk of transmission errors is reduced. Another advantage is that the invention provides a paperless billing technique that leads to low billing and administration costs. Further, the invention can be easily implemented since the bill is generated by the printing system just by using a software or hardware module and the pre-existing printer user interface. Finally, security provisions can be easily enabled for instance through fingerprint identification.
- While the invention has been described with respect to the physical embodiments constructed in accordance therewith, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications, variations and improvements of the present invention may be made in the light of the above teaching and within the purview of the appended claims without departing from the spirit and intended scope of the invention. In addition, those areas in which it is believed that those of ordinary skill in the art are familiar, have not been described herein in order to not unnecessarily obscure the invention described herein. Accordingly, it is to be understood that the invention is not to be limited by the specific illustrative embodiments, but only by the scope of the appended claims.
Claims (20)
Priority Applications (4)
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JP2003005406A JP2003244361A (en) | 2002-01-16 | 2003-01-14 | Printing system and billing process for printing system |
EP03000673A EP1329781A3 (en) | 2002-01-16 | 2003-01-16 | Billing process for printing systems |
US11/878,239 US7480077B2 (en) | 2002-01-16 | 2007-07-23 | Billing process for printing systems |
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US11/878,239 Continuation US7480077B2 (en) | 2002-01-16 | 2007-07-23 | Billing process for printing systems |
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US20040070781A1 (en) * | 2002-04-30 | 2004-04-15 | Seiko Epson Corporation | Information management device for printing apparatus and information management method |
US20050052686A1 (en) * | 2003-08-20 | 2005-03-10 | Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc. | Image outputting system |
US20060171377A1 (en) * | 2005-02-03 | 2006-08-03 | Xerox Corporation | Automated remote device meter reading |
US20060294031A1 (en) * | 2005-06-24 | 2006-12-28 | Xerox Corporation | Systems and methods for automated meter system |
US20070017968A1 (en) * | 2005-07-22 | 2007-01-25 | Xerox Corporation | Method for reconciliation of metered machine bills |
US20080007764A1 (en) * | 2006-07-10 | 2008-01-10 | Synnex Corporation | Equipment management system |
US20080079986A1 (en) * | 2006-09-29 | 2008-04-03 | Sharp Laboratories Of America, Inc. | Systems and methods for detailed job accounting for thin client rendering |
US20080137130A1 (en) * | 2006-12-08 | 2008-06-12 | Sharp Laboratories Of America, Inc. | Systems and methods for preparing a usage report with counter information |
US20090138965A1 (en) * | 2007-11-26 | 2009-05-28 | Sharp Laboratories Of America, Inc. | Systems and methods for providing access control and accounting information for web services |
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JP4282674B2 (en) * | 2006-02-17 | 2009-06-24 | シャープ株式会社 | Billing system, image forming apparatus, information processing apparatus, billing method, and program |
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US20040070781A1 (en) * | 2002-04-30 | 2004-04-15 | Seiko Epson Corporation | Information management device for printing apparatus and information management method |
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US8099335B2 (en) | 2004-02-23 | 2012-01-17 | Checkpoint Systems, Inc. | Method and system for determining billing information in a tag fabrication process |
US20060171377A1 (en) * | 2005-02-03 | 2006-08-03 | Xerox Corporation | Automated remote device meter reading |
US20060294031A1 (en) * | 2005-06-24 | 2006-12-28 | Xerox Corporation | Systems and methods for automated meter system |
US20070017968A1 (en) * | 2005-07-22 | 2007-01-25 | Xerox Corporation | Method for reconciliation of metered machine bills |
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Also Published As
Publication number | Publication date |
---|---|
US7480077B2 (en) | 2009-01-20 |
JP2003244361A (en) | 2003-08-29 |
US20070265925A1 (en) | 2007-11-15 |
EP1329781A3 (en) | 2012-04-11 |
EP1329781A2 (en) | 2003-07-23 |
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