1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink billing system and ink billing method for invoicing based on usage of ink, toner, or other printing fluids, printing liquids, or other printing material. To simplify the following discussion, the term “ink” will be used in the specification and the claims as a generic term that represents, fluids, liquids, or other materials for printing, such materials including ink, toner, organic materials, and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Printers such as inkjet printers and laser printers generally print text, pictures, or other content (referred to herein generally as “information”) on plain paper, special paper, or another recording medium by placing or fusing ink on the recording medium. The ink is typically stored in a cartridge which can be freely installed into and removed from the printer. When the ink inside the cartridge is depleted in the course of using the printer, ink can be added by simply replacing the cartridge.
Printer manufacturers also usually supply the ink and toner cartridges that are used in their printers to the end users, and are therefore also in the business of selling cartridges filled with ink.
More recently, manufacturers have developed new billing systems for charging the printer user based on the amount of ink consumed in addition to selling individual cartridges.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. 2002-36582 discloses a billing system in which the inkjet printer uses optical sensors to measure how much ink remains in the ink cartridge, and calculates ink usage based on how much ink remains. A data processing device connected to the inkjet printer acquires data relating how much ink is used (referred to below as simply “ink usage”) from the inkjet printer, and sends data relating to ink usage over a network to a server in a service center. The billing module that runs on the service center server then references an ink billing table to calculate the billing amount based on ink usage and bills the user.
Ink billing systems can be deployed in many ways. In one such system the printer manufacturer (ink supplier) provides multiple printers to a client company, and uses an ink billing system to invoice the client for the ink used instead of simply selling and charging for the individual ink cartridges that are used in the printers. In this scenario the ink billing system must be able to detect how much ink was used by the multiple printers and charge the client based on this ink usage information collected from the multiple printers. The printer manufacturer can expect clients that use many printers will use a large amount of ink, and providing other value-added services as part of the ink billing process can therefore be very effective. If the printer manufacturer deals with numerous companies, it may also be desirable to tailor the additional services offered to different clients.
The present invention provides a ink billing system and ink billing method that can be beneficially used in systems involving a plurality of printers.