Patent ID: 7284061

Claim:
A method for providing exclusive control of a device's capabilities to a user over a network, the method comprising the steps of: receiving, from an information processing apparatus, a request for the user to obtain exclusive control of the device's capabilities; determining, by the device, whether the device is available for the user to obtain exclusive control of the device's capabilities; in a case where the device determines in the determining step that the device is available for the user to obtain exclusive control of the device's capabilities, providing, by the device, the user with exclusive control of the device's capabilities; in a case where the device determines in the determining step that the device is not available for the user to obtain exclusive control of the device's capabilities, adding, by the device, the user to a reservation queue of users requesting to obtain exclusive control of the device's capabilities; requesting, by the information processing apparatus, that the device process a job using the device's capabilities; and adding, by the device, the job to a job queue of jobs to be processed using the device's capabilities, wherein, if the device provides exclusive control of the device's capabilities to the user when the user is at a first position within the reservation queue, a job at a first position within the job queue, corresponding to a user other than the user who has been provided exclusive control of the device's capabilities, is deferred from being processed during a period in which the user, who has been provided exclusive control of the device's capabilities, maintains exclusive control of the device's capabilities.