ALEXANDRIA, Va., Oct. 27 -- United States Patent no. 12,775,256, issued on Oct. 27, was assigned to Lenovo (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. (Singapore).

"Environmental control unit, voice-enabled assist device and remote server system" was invented by Mark Patrick Delaney (Raleigh, N.C.), Russell Speight VanBlon (Raleigh, N.C.), John Carl Mese (Cary, N.C.) and Nathan J. Peterson (Oxford, N.C.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A system can include an environmental control unit that controls operation of heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment at a site; a voice-enabled assistant device operatively coupled to the environmental control unit, where the voice-enabled assistant device transmits comma...