Patent ID: 7595733

Claim:
An article surveillance tag attachment apparatus for use with goods of varying size and shape, the attachment apparatus comprising: a lanyard that includes a flexible, elongated body portion connected at one end to a stop portion, the stop portion having a width that is greater than a width of the elongated body portion, the elongated body portion including a plurality of parallel ridges disposed across at least a portion of the length of at least one side of the elongated body portion; a housing that includes an inner surface and an outer surface, the inner surface defining an internal chamber, the outer surface defining a pair of spaced lanyard receiving passages, a first passage of the pair having a cross-sectional geometry configured to receive the elongated body portion, but not die stop portion, of the lanyard prior to securing of the lanyard to a good, the first passage of the pair being positioned further from the internal chamber than is a second passage of the pair, the second passage of the pair having a cross-sectional geometry configured to receive the elongated body portion of the lanyard during securing of the lanyard to the good, the lanyard and the pair of lanyard receiving passages being further arranged such that a first portion of the lanyard is spaced from and substantially parallel to a second portion of the lanyard when the first portion of the lanyard is positioned in the first passage and the second portion of the lanyard is positioned in the second passage, the housing defining at least one aperture which communicates the internal chamber with the second passage; and a pawl positioned within the internal chamber of the housing, the pawl including a body portion and at least one protrusion, the at least one protrusion being positionable through the at least one aperture and into the second passage such that the at least one protrusion engages at least one of the plurality of parallel ridges when the lanyard is secured to the good, thereby inhibiting removal of the lanyard from the second passage.