1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wire or wirelessly communicable electronic apparatus including an image capturing device such as a scanner, an image forming apparatus such as a multi-functional apparatus, a copier, a facsimile machine, a printer, or an information processing apparatus such as a computer, and more particularly to management of transfer of licenses of software programs used in an electronic apparatus.
2. Description of the Background Art
Recently, multi-functional apparatuses (hereinafter “apparatuses”) having various functions have been sold without pre-installment of application programs (hereinafter “applications”) in the apparatuses. Instead, users purchase applications when required, and install the applications in the apparatuses to add functions useable for the apparatuses. When the applications are purchased and installed, licenses are managed in such a way that they are granted to the user for the applications installed in the apparatus to prevent unauthorized use of the application.
When such apparatuses installed with the applications are to be discarded due to malfunction or aging of the apparatuses, the licensed applications may be transferred to one or more other apparatuses as required. In such a situation, an operation to transfer applications and licenses is required, but such operation is time-consuming. Therefore, a license management system that can transfer a plurality of licenses with an uncomplicated configuration and operation has been proposed, as in JP-2009-271680-A.
JP-2009-271680-A discloses a method to transfer a plurality of licenses with a simple configuration and operation. In the license management system of JP-2009-271680-A, when a function-disabling process is initiated, all functions are disabled, a function-disabling key is issued, and resources for such functions are transferred to another apparatus. Then, a function-transfer-complete verification key is issued for the apparatus that has received the resources to implement a given function. When such keys are input to a license server, the license server database is updated and a function-enabling key is issued. When such function-enabling key is input to the other apparatus, the transferred function is readied for use.
However, in such conventional license management system, licenses for a plurality of applications or functions installed in one apparatus can be transferred to another apparatus, but the licenses can be transferred only to one other apparatus (one transfer destination), which means the licenses cannot be distributed to a plurality of apparatuses. If a user wants to distribute licenses for a plurality of applications to a plurality of apparatuses, the user needs to set the required keys one by one for each license transfer, which is a time-consuming.