Patent ID: 7850084

Claim:
A computer apparatus comprising: an equipment-information holding unit which holds equipment information which contains setting information of equipment of the computer apparatus and license information for using the equipment; an encoder unit which encodes the equipment information held by the equipment-information holding unit such that the setting information is encoded into a bar code and the license information is encoded into a ground tint; an image-data generating unit which generates image data from the encoded equipment information held by the equipment-information holding unit; a plotter unit which prints the generated image data on a sheet in a predetermined form in response to a request by the image-data generating unit; an equipment-information setting unit which stores the encoded equipment information into the equipment-information holding unit based on second image data read from a second printed sheet, from another computer apparatus, on which second equipment information is printed; and a processing unit which authorizes the computer apparatus based on the stored encoded equipment information, wherein the another computer apparatus generates and prints the second printed sheet.