Patent ID: 8654384

Claim:
An image forming apparatus to be network-connected, comprising: an acquirer for requesting event information indicating a specific event having occurred in another image forming apparatus via a network and acquiring the event information transmitted via the network in response to the request; and a processor for performing a predetermined process to deal with the specific event when the event information is acquired by the acquirer, wherein: the image forming apparatus is network-connected to the other image forming apparatus or a server capable of data communication with the other image forming apparatus; the event information includes event occurrence arrival timing information indicating elapsed time from the first execution of a predetermined operation to the occurrence of the specific event in the operation in the other image forming apparatus; the image forming apparatus further comprises an elapsed time information calculator for calculating elapsed time information from the first execution of the operation to a time of execution of the operation when the operation is executed in the image forming apparatus; the acquirer is a timing information acquirer for acquiring the event occurrence arrival timing information from the other image forming apparatus or the server; and the processor includes: a difference calculator for calculating a difference between the elapsed time information calculated by the elapsed time information calculator and the event occurrence arrival timing information acquired by the timing information acquirer; a determiner for determining whether or not the difference calculated by the difference calculator has reached a predetermined limit value; and a controller for causing a predetermined operating mechanism to perform a corresponding operation predetermined as a measure against the specific event when the difference is determined to have reached the limit value by the determiner.