Patent Document ID: 8316049
Application ID: 12372263

Base Claim:
1. A document management system comprising: a document producing apparatus including: a protected document producing unit that, in accordance with protected document production instructions including: a document which is an object of use restriction; and use restriction information containing a set of an operation subject and operations which the operation subject is allowed or inhibited to perform, produces a protected document which contains: the document specified by the protected document production instructions; and the use restriction information specified by the protected document production instructions; and a document use managing apparatus including: a document information storage that stores document information of the document to be associated with the use restriction information; a document information registering unit that, in response to a use request specifying the protected document which is an object of the request, refers the document information storage, and that, in a case where document information of a document contained in the protected document specified by the use request is not stored in the document information storage, registers the document information contained in the specified protected document, and the use restriction information contained in the specified protected document, while the document information and the use restriction information are associated with each other; a use restriction information storage that store the use restriction information contained in the specified protected document; and a use restriction information registering unit that, in a case where the use restriction information contained in the specified protected document is not stored in use restriction information storage, registers the use restriction information contained in the specified protected document into the use restriction information storage, wherein determination whether the protected document which is the object of the request can be used or not is performed on the basis of the use restriction information associated with the document information contained in the protected document that is specified by the use request and stored in the use restriction information storage, and a requester who issues the use request, the document producing apparatus does not register the document information into the document information storage of the document use managing apparatus and the use restriction information into the use restriction information storage of the document use managing apparatus, and the document producing apparatus and the document use managing apparatus do not exchange the document information and the use restriction information via a communication.

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Claim 2:
2. The document management system as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the document use managing apparatus comprises an updating unit that updates the use restriction information stored in the use restriction information storage.