Patent ID: 7969598

Claim:
A document management system comprising: an image scanning apparatus; and a document management apparatus for managing images scanned by the image scanning apparatus, wherein the image scanning apparatus comprises: a scanning unit adapted to scan an image of a document; a detection unit adapted to detect a document type and date of creation of document by analyzing image data of the document scanned by said scanning unit, wherein said document type includes a receipt, a contract document, and/or a bill; and an appending unit adapted to append the detected document type and the date of creation of document to the image data, wherein if the detection unit fails to detect the document type, the appending unit appends unknown type to the image data as the document type, and if the detection unit fails to detect the date of creation of document, the appending unit appends the date of scanning of the document to the image data as the date of creation of document; and wherein the document management apparatus comprises: a storage unit adapted to store a storage period table describing a storage period of document for each document type, wherein said storage period of document is a legally-defined storage period for its document type, and wherein said storage period of document for the document of the unknown type is the legally-defined longest storage period; a changing unit adapted to change the storage period in the storage period table; a calculation unit adapted to retrieve the document type and the date of creation of document appended to the image data, specify the storage period described in the storage period table based on the retrieved document type, and calculate an expiration date for storage based on the specified storage period and the retrieved date of creation of document; a determination unit adapted to determine whether or not the expiration date for storage has expired; and a management unit adapted to execute, for image data for which it is determined that the expiration date for storage has expired, one of predetermined processings including deletion of image data, notification of expiration of the expiration date for storage, and continuation of storage.