Patent ID: 7924447

Claim:
A method for balancing a workload between a plurality of printer devices, comprising: providing a plurality of printer devices coupled together, wherein each printer device includes a printer controller adapted to interactively communicate with other printer devices; receiving a request for printing a job at a printer device in the plurality of printer devices; and determining with the printer controller in the printer device where the request is received whether the job can be shared based upon a confidential nature of the job, wherein the determining further comprises: printing the job with the printer device where the request is received when the job cannot be shared, identifying which one of the plurality of printer devices satisfies at least one criteria when the job can be shared, and routing the job to another printer device which satisfies the criteria, wherein the identifying which one of the plurality of printer devices satisfies at least one criteria further comprises: determining if one or more job sharing rules has been satisfied wherein the job sharing rules comprise: determining if the job would exceed a maximum for a work queue at the another printer device which received the job; determining if the job would take longer to complete than a first period of time; determining if the another printer device which received the job is non-functional; and printing the job at the another printer device when the another printer device is functional.