Title: Centralized queue in network printing systems
Type: issued patent
Patent number: 7,167,930
Issue date: January 23, 2007
Filing date: September 12, 2003 (priority back to June 6, 1995)
Link to PDF: 
AIPW Summary: A centralized queue for a network printing system allows users to add print jobs to the queue without transmitting the acutal print job to the network, by storing print job information in the queue and leaving the actual job data at the host computer. The patent describes an imaging device protocol (IDP) to manage the print queue and to arbitrate among the jobs in the queue. See Figure 3 for an overview of how the IDP fits into the networking scheme. The claims of this patent relate to requesting the print job data from the host computer when the print job reaches the top of the queue.
See related U.S. Patent Nos. 6,401,150; 6,502,147; and 6,687,776 for additional information.