ALEXANDRIA, Va., Feb. 11 -- United States Patent no. 12,545,180, issued on Feb. 10.
"Tailgate position indicator" was invented by Monti Krob (Mount Vernon, Iowa).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A tailgate position indicator allows a person in the cab of a pickup truck to observe the open and closed positions of a tailgate of the truck when a bed cover on the truck is rolled out or closed. The indicator includes a spring biased flag mounted to the bed cover for movement between a raised position visible from the cab to indicate that the tailgate is open and a lowered position substantially out of view from the cab to indicate when the tailgate is closed. The flag is moved to the lower position b...