Patent ID: 7873721

Claim:
A system comprising a data managing apparatus and a print processing apparatus, in which image data designated as a target to be printed by a user terminal is transmitted, via a network, from the data managing apparatus that stores the image data, to the print processing apparatus that performs a printing process on the image data, wherein the data managing apparatus includes: a computer processor; a memory unit; a managing unit that stores a table that associates the image data with an acquired flag indicating whether the print processing apparatus has acquired the image data from the data management apparatus; an updating unit that updates the acquired flag to a state indicating that the print processing apparatus has not acquired the image data from the data management apparatus, if a settlement processing of a printing cost for the image data has been completed by the user terminal, and which updates the acquired flag to a state indicating that the print processing apparatus has acquired the image data from the data management apparatus, if the settlement processing of the printing cost for the image data has been completed and the image data has been transmitted to the print processing apparatus from the data management apparatus; a referring unit that refers to the acquired flag stored by the managing unit, in response to a request for acquiring the image data from the print processing apparatus; and a transmission control unit that allows the image data to be transmitted to the print processing apparatus, if, based on a result of the referring by the referring unit, the acquired flag is determined to be in the state indicating that the print processing apparatus has not acquired the image data from the data management apparatus, and prohibits the image data from being transmitted to the print processing apparatus, if, based on the result of the referring by the referring unit, the acquired flag is determined to be in the state indicating that the print processing apparatus has acquired the image data from the data management apparatus, and wherein the print processing apparatus includes a print processing unit that performs the printing process on the image data transmitted from the data managing apparatus to the print processing apparatus.