Patent ID: 7450254

Claim:
An image forming device management system, comprising: a plurality of image forming devices; a central service station for providing a maintenance service for the image forming devices; and a communication device for connecting one of the image forming devices to the central service station via a communication network, wherein each of the image forming devices comprises: receiving means for receiving a non-resettable copy count and a remote message cycle, both transmitted to the image forming device by the central service station through the communication device, the copy count indicating a predetermined number of copy sheets with respect to a contract for use of the image forming device, the remote message cycle indicating a frequency at which the image forming device transmits a remote message to the central service station; first storage means for storing the copy count and the remote message cycle received by the receiving means; second storage means for storing a current copy count that is incremented every time an image formation of one copy sheet is performed by the image forming device; control means for setting the image forming device in a remote message enable state when a difference between the current copy count and the received copy count reaches an integral multiple of the remote message cycle; and remote message means for transmitting the remote message through the communication device to the central service station after the image forming device is set in the remote message enable state by the control means.