ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 14 -- United States Patent no. 12,679,635, issued on July 14, was assigned to Zhejiang University (Hangzhou, China).

"Water tank, ventilation area design method thereof, storage medium and electronic apparatus" was invented by Yiyi Ma (Hangzhou, China), Jialing Liang (Hangzhou, China), Feifei Zheng (Hangzhou, China), David Z. Zhu (Ningbo, China), Hongwu Tang (Nanjing, China) and Saiyu Yuan (Nanjing, China).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A drainage device, a water tank, a ventilation area design method thereof, and a storage medium and an electronic apparatus, wherein the top of the water tank is provided with a ventilation slit, an area of which is adjustable in real time...