An image processing apparatus connected to a license management server that manages a license of an application, the image processing apparatus comprising: a storage unit that stores therein a license file containing an expiration date of the license of the application and a class of the license, wherein the class includes a trial version that allows the application to be used on a trial basis or an official version that allows the application to be used with a right of use; a detecting unit that acquires the expiration date from the license file and detects whether the expiration date has passed; a class identifying unit that identifies whether the class of the license whose expiration date is detected as having passed is the trial version or the official version, based on the license file; an update-process determining unit that determines a method of performing an update process based on the identified class, wherein in response to the class identifying unit identifying the class of the license as the trial version, the update-process determining unit determines the method as a first update method, in which the license file stored in the storage device is replaced with a license file of the official version, and in response to the class identifying unit identifying the class of the license as the official version, the update-process determining unit checks, through the license management server, whether the license update process has not been completed by a user, and when the license update process has not been completed, the update-process determining unit determines the method as a second update method, in which the license file stored in the storage device is replaced with a license file of the trial version; a license-file acquiring unit that acquires the license file of the official version from the license management server when the update-process determining unit determines the method as the first update method, and acquires the license file of the trial version from the license management server when the update-process determining unit determines the method as the second update method; and a replacing unit that replaces the license file stored in the storage unit with either the license file of the official version or the license file of the trial version that is acquired by the license-file acquiring unit. a storage unit that stores therein a license file containing an expiration date of the license of the application and a class of the license, wherein the class includes a trial version that allows the application to be used on a trial basis or an official version that allows the application to be used with a right of use; a detecting unit that acquires the expiration date from the license file and detects whether the expiration date has passed; a class identifying unit that identifies whether the class of the license whose expiration date is detected as having passed is the trial version or the official version, based on the license file; an update-process determining unit that determines a method of performing an update process based on the identified class, wherein in response to the class identifying unit identifying the class of the license as the trial version, the update-process determining unit determines the method as a first update method, in which the license file stored in the storage device is replaced with a license file of the official version, and in response to the class identifying unit identifying the class of the license as the official version, the update-process determining unit checks, through the license management server, whether the license update process has not been completed by a user, and when the license update process has not been completed, the update-process determining unit determines the method as a second update method, in which the license file stored in the storage device is replaced with a license file of the trial version; a license-file acquiring unit that acquires the license file of the official version from the license management server when the update-process determining unit determines the method as the first update method, and acquires the license file of the trial version from the license management server when the update-process determining unit determines the method as the second update method; and a replacing unit that replaces the license file stored in the storage unit with either the license file of the official version or the license file of the trial version that is acquired by the license-file acquiring unit.