Patent ID: 7684072
Filing Date: 2010-03-23
Classification: G06F,G06Q

Abstract:
1. A method of providing a level of priority for printing a document in a company having a plurality of departments, comprising: receiving, by a printer system, a print job for printing at least one document; determining, by the printer system, a department from the plurality of departments which sent the print job, and assigning a priority to the print job based on the determined department; after the print job has been printed, determining, by the printer system, a print amount from the determined department during a fixed time interval; lowering, by the printer system, the priority assigned to the determined department if the print amount exceeds a threshold value; and periodically performing, by the printer system, a priority level update for each of the departments, based on the print amount for the corresponding departments during the fixed time interval, the print amount corresponding to either a total number of printed sheets or a total number of print jobs during the fixed time interval, in a case in which the print amount corresponds to the total number of printed sheets during the fixed time interval: in a case in which the print amount corresponds to the total number of print jobs during the fixed time interval: