Abstract:
A system and method for utilizing otherwise unused space on cover or partition sheets printed in response to a print command, which sheets otherwise typically become waste paper, by printing on such sheets additional information not directly related to the print job but of interest to the user, such as coupons, or other promotional material, or other information such as lottery material.

Description:
FIELD 
   This patent specification is in the field of using printers or other image forming devices that print a sheet such as a cover or partition sheet for purposes such as separating print jobs from the same or different users or identifying print jobs and/or users. 
   BACKGROUND 
   Many types of image forming devices print sheets that are in addition to the normal print jobs. For example, a network printer can be arranged to automatically print a cover or partition sheets that contain information such as the identity of the print job, the time, the name of the user who sent the print job, etc. Similar arrangement can be set up for printers that are not shared, or for other image forming devices, such as multi-function office machines, copiers, fax machines, etc. Such additional sheets typically become waste paper once they have served their immediate purpose, such as helping a user find a particular print job or other image forming job. 
   SUMMARY 
   One embodiment disclosed herein uses the such cover or partition sheets to print coupons or other information that is not directly related to the print job associated with the cover or partition sheet but can be useful to the user in other ways. 
   In an embodiment that illustrates the principles disclosed in this patent specification, e-commerce entities provide coupon information related to goods or services they promote. For example, an office supplies company such as Staples may be interested in having coupons for a discount on a particular item printed on the cover or partition sheet of a user&#39;s print job. In accordance with a business arrangement with an entity such as a service center, for example a home page source such as an office equipment manufacturer, the e-commerce entity supplies coupon information to a database operated by or for the home page provider. Users at user stations such as personal computers that have either local area network (LAN) access to printers or direct access to individual printers, can request coupon information through an Internet connection with the home page source. For example, the request can be made by clicking through a menu on the home page or a link through the home page. In response, the service center downloads selected coupon information over the Internet to the user station, and the user station stores some or all of this information in memory at the local station, e.g., in the PC memory of a user, or at a server connected to the user&#39;s LAN. Provided that such coupon information has been already stored at the user&#39;s station, when a user issues a normal print command to print a print job, for example a Word document, and provided the normal response to such a print command is to print both the print job and a separate cover or partition sheet, the user station automatically accesses the locally stored coupon information, merges it with the normal cover or partition sheet information, and prints a new kind of a cover or partition sheet. The new kind of print includes the typical cover sheet information that is related to the print job, such as the time and date, some identification of the user who sent the print command and/or of the print job, but also includes additional information that is not directly related to the particular print job, e.g., includes a coupon from or for an e-commerce entity. 
   Other systems for electronic coupon distribution have been proposed, for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,907,830, 5,909,673, and 5,926,795, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference as examples of state-of-the art technology. However, none of them propose the system or method disclosed and claimed in this patent specification. 

   
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING 
       FIG. 1  illustrates the overall arrangement of a system according to a preferred embodiment. 
       FIG. 2  illustrates exchange of information between entities included in the  FIG. 1  arrangement. 
       FIG. 3  illustrates a coupon request screen. 
       FIG. 4  is a flowchart illustrating a coupon download/update process. 
       FIG. 5  is a flowchart illustrating a coupon printing process. 
       FIG. 6  is a flowchart illustrating a process involving a coupon update request. 
       FIG. 7  is a flowchart illustrating a coupon canceling process. 
   

   DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
   Referring to  FIG. 1 , a preferred embodiment is discussed in which information unrelated to a print request is printed on a cover or partition sheet that is normally printed for purposes such as identifying the print job, the person who sent the print job, etc., but it should be clear that the principles outlined below are applicable to other image forming devices or other arrangements involving users and e-commerce entities. 
   In  FIG. 1 , when a user at a station such as personal computer (PC)  21  transmits a print request, a printer  23  prints not only the print job the user specifically requested but also additional information, typically on an additional sheet that can be called a cover sheet or a partition sheet. This additional information can typically include an identification of the user, the time and date, a file name or directory, etc. Such additional pages frequently are automatically printed when the user is a part of a network that includes other users, such as the network  2   a  illustrated at user side  2  in  FIG. 1 , but there can be occasions when even an printer that is not shared is set up to automatically print such additional sheets. In the example of  FIG. 1 , the network includes a server  2   b  having a database  2   c , and a fire wall  2   d  through which the network is connected to the Internet, thereby allowing connection thereto for several individual users, each at a respective PC  21 . While the Internet is the communication medium in this embodiment, it should be apparent that other large-scale networks can be used instead of, or in addition to, the Internet. 
   Through the Internet, the user side  2  can communicate with a central service center  1  and e-commerce sites  3 . Central service center  1  has a home page source  11  and a database  13 . In this example, the home page  11  and database  13  are operated by a printer manufacturer, but in other embodiments other entities can provide similar functionality. Service center  1  further includes a local area network (LAN)  15  and stations connected thereto such as PC&#39;s  15   a , a central computer  19  and a database  19   a  connected thereto, as well as a printer  15   c , with network  15  being connected to the Internet through a fire wall  17 . E-commerce sites  3  also are connected to the Internet through a fire wall. While only one e-commerce site  3   a  and its fire wall  3   b  are illustrated in  FIG. 1 , it should be understood that typically multiple e-commerce sites would be included, with at least some of them having respective fire walls. Also connected to the Internet are individual PC users, such as  21   a  and  21   b , connected to respective individual printers  23   a  and  23   b.    
   Referring to  FIG. 2 , an entity that provides home page  11  has arrangements with entities that provide coupons. The arrangements can be directly between the entity providing home page  11  and e-commerce entities such as  3   a ,  3   c  and  3   d , or can be through intermediaries (not illustrated in  FIG. 1  or  FIG. 2 ). Once appropriate commercial arrangements have been made, the e-commerce entities transmit to the home page source, directly or through other entities, coupon information that is ultimately stored in database  13 , and can be updated from time to time as agreed according to the commercial arrangements. A PC  21  can access home page  11  and request coupon transmissions from the home page screen, as described below. One or more coupons can be transmitted from database  13  to a user PC such as  21 , upon a user request or otherwise. For example, the user at  21  can request a specific coupon by clicking at an appropriate notation in the web page screen. Upon such a click, the user&#39;s PC  21  transmits the request to home page source  11 , which then downloads the coupon information from database  13  to the user&#39;s PC  21 . The user at  21  can similarly request the coupon information to be updated, or canceled, and the coupon information sent to and stored at the user&#39;s PC  21  can be updated or deleted based on data transmitted thereto from home page source  11 . 
   At the user&#39;s PC  21 , a printer driver  25  has merge software that merges the normal data that would be printed on a cover or partition sheet with the coupon information, and sends the merged data to printer  23  for printing a cover or partition sheet with both the normal information printed thereon and coupon information. 
   Referring to  FIG. 3 , preferred steps for making a coupon request include providing some user identification at step  31 , for example on a screen form sent to a user at a PC  21  over the Internet from home page source  11 . The user ID can be information such as one or more of a serial number of some other identification of the PC, an e-mail address, a name, or some other identification. Alternatively, such information could be provided without direct user input, for example through the use of “cookies” previously stored in the user&#39;s PC  21 . In response to receiving a user ID, at step  32  home page source  11  sends for display on the user&#39;s screen a coupon request form for the user to click on one or more sources of coupons the user would like to receive. Upon confirmation by the user at step  32 , such as clicking “yes,” or without express confirmation in an alternate embodiment, the home page source  11  can send at step  33  for display at the user&#39;s PC another form on which the user can click information as to the desired frequency of updating the coupon information, and the user can confirm the choice by clicking “OK” or can cancel. At step  34 , the user receives another form on which clicking at “send” send the coupon request to home page source  11  and clicking on “cancel” cancels the coupon request. Service center  1  receives the coupon request information from the user&#39;s PC  21  over the Internet and, upon authorization from central computer  19 , database  13  downloads the coupon information to the user&#39;s PC  21  through the Internet connection. 
   Referring to  FIG. 4 , the process of downloading coupon information from service center  1  to the user&#39;s PC  21  starts at step  41  and at step  42  central computer  19  checks for coupon requests. If no coupon requests are pending, the process loops back to step  41 , and this continues until step  42  determines that a coupon request from a PC  21  is pending. Upon a “yes” answer at step  42 , the process retrieves the appropriate coupon information from database  13 , and downloads it at step  44  to the requesting PC  21  through the Internet connection. Step  45  returns the process to the start step  41 . 
   Referring to  FIG. 5 , the process of printing the coupon information at the user&#39;s PC  21  and printer  23 . The process starts at step  51 , checks at step  52  if the user&#39;s PC  21  has issued a request for a print job and loops back to step  51  if no printing has been requested. Upon detecting a print job request at step  52 , the process checks at step  53  if a cover or partition page should be printed and, if the answer is “yes,” checks at step  54  if there is coupon data in memory at PC  21 . If the answer at step  54  also is “yes,” the process merges the usual cover or partition sheet date with the appropriate coupon data, and at step  56  transmits to printer  23  the print data for all three of the print job, the normal cover or partition page, and the coupon. The process keeps checking at step  57  if printing has been completed, and ends at step  58  upon the end of printing and return to step  51 . If the answer at step  53  is “no,” i.e., no cover or partition page is to be printed, the process goes directly to step  56  to transmit for printing only the print job. Similarly, if the answer at step  54  is “no,” i.e., there is no coupon data at PC  21 , the process goes directly to step  56 , to transmit for printing only the print job and the normal cover sheet or partition sheet data. 
   Referring to  FIG. 6 , the process carried out by a user PC  21  to updating a coupon data at appropriate time intervals starts at step  51  and at step  52  the process checks whether an appropriate preset time interval for the relevant PC  21  has passed. If the answer is “no,” the process checks at step  53  whether a manual or other override should command updating even if the preset time interval has not passed and, if the answer is “no,” returns to step  51 . If the answer at step  52  or at step  53  is “yes,” the process at step  54  transmits a coupon request to the home page source  11 , and checks at step  55  is a coupon request has been received at PC  21  from the home page source  11  over the Internet connection. If the answer at step  55  is “no,” the process loops back to step  55 , until a “yes” answer leads to step  56 , at which PC  21  writes or rewrites the newly received coupon data in its memory, and proceeds to step  57 , which returns the process to step  51 . 
   Referring to  FIG. 7 , a user can cancel a coupon request previously made, and can clear PC  21  of coupon data by sending an appropriate request to service center  1  though the Internet connection. The process carried out at service center  1  starts at step at step  71  and checks at step  72  whether a request for canceling coupon information has been received from a PC  21 . If the answer is “no,” the process loops back to step  71 . Upon a “yes” answer at step  72 , the process transmits a coupon delete command to the appropriate PC  21  over the Internet connection, and at step  74  causes a return to step  71 . In response to the coupon delete command received at a PC  21  as a result of step  73 , the PC  21  deletes the software commands that had been stored therein to cause the transmission of coupon updating requests to service center  1 . 
   In the preferred embodiments disclosed above, the additional information printed on the cover or partition sheet is coupons, but it can be other information that is in addition to the normal information printed on such an additional sheet. As a non-limiting example, the additional information can be lottery information that can be downloaded to a user&#39;s PC with or instead of the coupon information discussed above, and stored at the user&#39;s PC  21 . For example, a set of random numbers, or software for generating such a set of random numbers, can be downloaded from service center  1  to a user&#39;s PC  21  together with a lottery number. The lottery number can be printed at printer  23  as described above for the coupon information, and the set of random number downloaded from service center  1 , or a set of locally generated random numbers, can be printed on the same sheet or on cover or partition sheets for other print jobs. As other examples, educational material, or promotional material, or company announcements, or some other information can be printed on the cover or partition sheets, or on other sheets that have utilizable space, instead of or in addition to the types of information discussed above.