Patent ID: 7796283

Claim:
A method for utilizing excess printing capacity, the method comprising: providing a printing service provider which administers a printing distribution system, the printing service provider receiving print orders directly from a customer and overseeing and ensuring completion of the print job and performing printing of print jobs; establishing a network of one or more printing partners which perform excess print jobs of the printing service provider which are made available to the printing partners by the printing distribution system of the printing service provider, wherein an excess print job is a print job that the printing service provider does not have capacity to complete; making one or more of the excess print jobs of the printing service provider available on-line by the printing distribution system of the printing service provider, to the printing partners at a fixed price that is a percentage of a customer-quoted price and set by the printing service provider, where the determination of which printing partners to make the excess print jobs available to is made exclusively by the printing distribution system of the printing service provider based on one or more pre-established criteria including performance parameters reflecting quality of past performance of the printing partners; and allowing the printing partners to select and complete one or more of the excess print jobs.