US Patent Issued to BROTHER KOGYO on June 17 for "Image forming apparatus, server, and system for use with apparatus or consumable contracts" (Japanese Inventor)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 19 -- United States Patent no. 12,335,449, issued on June 17, was assigned to BROTHER KOGYO K.K. (Nagoya, Japan).

"Image forming apparatus, server, and system for use with apparatus or consumable contracts" was invented by Takashi Suzuki (Nagoya, Japan).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "An apparatus memory is configured to store mode information indicating one of a first contract mode, a second contract mode, and a commercial mode. The first contract mode is a mode in which an apparatus contract for an apparatus main body and a consumable contract for a consumable are set. The second contract mode is a mode in which the apparatus contract is not set and the consumable contra...