Patent ID: 7085763

Claim:
A device search system comprising a server unit and a client unit, wherein said client unit comprises: first request means for requesting said server unit to execute a first search in accordance with first search attributes in order to search for a desired device on the network, the first search attributes including a type attribute indicating a device type and a function attribute indicating a device function of the desired device; recognition means for recognizing whether result information obtained from the first search executed by said server unit shows a presence or absence of at least one device; second request means for requesting said server unit to execute a second search in accordance with a second search attribute in order to search for a desired device on the network, in response to a recognition by the recognition means that the result information shows the absence of at least one device, the second attribute being the type attribute extracted from the first search attributes; and output means for outputting, for each device searched in the second search, information indicating a device type corresponding to the second search attribute and information indicating to what extent the device meets the function attribute not extracted for the second search attribute from the first search attributes.