Patent ID: 7182264

Claim:
An IC card case configured to house an IC card by a user, the IC card starting measurement of a period in response to an instruction and continuing the measurement without an external power, the IC card being usable if the period fails to have elapsed and being unusable if the period has elapsed, the IC card case comprising: an identification unit configured to determine whether or not the user is legitimate; a performing unit configured to perform user identification utilizing the identification unit, when the IC card is housed in the IC card case, the IC card including a change unit whose state changes with lapse of time starting from an initial state without an external power, a measuring unit configured to measure the state of the change unit so as to generate information indicating whether or not the validity period has elapsed, and an operation unit configured to be operable if the information indicates that the validity period fails to have yet elapsed, and to be inoperable if the information indicates that the validity period has elapsed; and a transmission unit configured to transmit a signal to the IC card depending on a result of the user identification, the signal initializing the IC card to the initial state.