And it is patented..

dotBen · on July 19, 2023

This is a good thing, some troll could patent it and then deny anyone else the right to use it.

somehnguy · on July 19, 2023

Wouldn't an attempt to do that fail the prior art test?

bigmattystyles · on July 19, 2023

Why even risk it? Just get the patent and license it for free.

loeg · on July 19, 2023

But also, freely licensed.

crote · on July 19, 2023

Only for large retailers, though. Why not directly offer the CAD file for download right on that page, or make the resulting product available for purchase?

monkeymeister · on July 19, 2023

Likely to avoid defeat attempts. The corporate email requirement acts as a first-line defense to at least try to stave-off would be skimmers / scammers grabbing the CAD file and working out the measurements needed to defeat it.

Operyl · on July 20, 2023

Seems easier to just pay off an underpaid Target employee.

kalupa · on July 19, 2023

ah, nothing like security through obscurity!

pbjtime · on July 22, 2023

Which should not be your entire strategy but is completely valid layer of mitigation

gorkish · on July 19, 2023

Sure is. Good thing criminals are too dumb to find it, and especially too dumb to replicate it. I'm sure they will never be able to modify their skimmers to circumvent it. They will rue the day they messed with Target's IP lawyers!!! https://patents.google.com/patent/US11507762B2/

KennyBlanken · on July 19, 2023

[flagged]

runjake · on July 19, 2023

  > It's literally just a box-shaped piece of plastic with specific dimensions, attached to a handle. That's it.

That could be said about a very large number of useful products. It doesn't lessen their utility.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html#comments