Patent ID: 7934006

Claim:
A device management system, comprising: a server; a client which issues an instruction to the server and receives a result of executing the instruction from the server; and an authentication management server which authenticates the client, wherein: the server, the client, and the authentication management server are connected to each other via a network; the client has a device connected thereto, the device being exclusively controlled from one of the client and the server; the client includes device managing means which transmits and receives data to and from a bus driver in the client, and transmits and receives the data to and from the server; the authentication management server includes device information holding/use right managing means which manages a use right for the device; the server includes virtual device managing means which controls transmission and reception of data via the network between a first application in the server and the device managing means of the client, in accordance with the use right held in the device information holding/use right managing means of the authentication management server; a first device driver which is included in the server generates a first request for using the device connected to the client upon receipt of an instruction from a second application which is included in the server; the virtual device managing means of the server transmits the first request to the client via a communication channel provided on the network; a second device driver which is included in the client generates a second request for using the device upon receipt of an instruction from a third application which is included in the client; and the device managing means of the client: starts up the device connected to the client, the device being exclusively used by the client, allows the server to exclusively use the device connected to the client, receives the first request to be generated by the first device driver which is included in the server, via the communication channel, after allowing the server to exclusively use the device connected to the client, converts the first request to generate a third request to be processed by the bus driver of the client to use the device connected to the client from the server, and when allowing the server to exclusively use the device connected to the client, initializes the device, and interrupts the second request to be generated by the second device driver.