Patent ID: 8854692

Claim:
A printing device that prints out electronic document data having superimposed thereupon watermark information, wherein: the printing device is configured to receive electronic document data, which were generated at a data transmission instruction issuer terminal operated by a data transmission instruction issuer who has issued an instruction for transmitting an electronic document, and to receive a data transmission instruction issuer information to identify the data transmission instruction issuer, from the data transmission instruction issuer terminal, the printing device further comprising: a document storage unit for storing the electronic document data; an operating unit at the printing device for accepting specific information of a print retriever based on a user operation; a watermark information superimposing unit for generating a watermark including the data transmission instruction issuer information and the specific information of the print retriever having been accepted at the operating unit and superimposing the watermark onto the electronic document data stored at the document storage unit; and a printing unit for outputting the electronic document data having the watermark superimposed thereupon by the watermark information superimposing unit onto paper as printed matter, wherein: if the specific information of the print retriever is not accepted within a predetermined length of time via the operating unit, the electronic document data stored at the document storage means are discarded; and the watermark information superimposing unit superimposes watermark information indicating the data transmission instruction issuer information and the specific information of the print retriever over the electronic document data only after a decision unit makes a decision that a person corresponding to the specific information is authorized to output the electronic document data onto paper as printed matter.