Image processing apparatus, remote management system, license update method, and computer program product

An image processing apparatus (100) includes an HDD (103) that stores therein a license file containing an expiration date of a license of an application and a class of the license, a detecting unit (133) that acquires the expiration date from the license file and detects whether the expiration date has passed, a class identifying unit (134) that identifies a class of the license whose expiration date is detected as having passed, based on the license file, an update-process determining unit (135) that determines a method of performing an update process based on the class, a license-file acquiring unit (137) that acquires a license file from the license file management server (300) based on the method of performing the update process, and a replacing unit (138) that replaces the license file stored in the HDD (103) with the license file acquired by the license-file acquiring unit (137).