Anybody dealing with the VID/PID USB issue for small open source projects?

Anyone dealing with the VID/PID issue for opensource projects? E.g. Start a Open Serial Bus org perhaps to highjack some abandoned VID spaces? -------- If I recall, USB-IF is pretty hostile to small players distributing only a few products like open sourced projects. I wonder if there has been any progress in this matter. If not... then has there been any efforts to at least hijack a VID space from a dead company, and coordinate the distribution of the PID numbers for open sourced projects. On dealing with the USB markings, is it possible to perhaps design a logo that is different enough from the logo USB, but is distinct enough to not be a legal concern? If so, then we should call this logo "Open Serial Bus", maybe the shape of the logo could be a silhouette of a usb plug, but superimposed over the open hardware lock&gears. ---- While we are at it, might be also nice to provide a consistent method for non-standard signals to interface with such "Open Serial Bus" devices. E.g. I saw some phone re-purposed the micro usb connectors to enable or output TTL serial pin outs in place of D+ & D- with a special signal to the ID pin. Sounds very useful. (In that particular case, perhaps a one wire eeprom with baud rate settings might be helpful on the ID pin) ------- Btw "Open Serial Bus" does not mean USB. It is OSB. Especially since such org cannot provide guarantees that USB-IF wouldn't do anything to cause trouble (e.g. reissuing a revoked VID/PID pair). And trademark wise, it is OSB, not USB, and thus is not likely to be confused by consumers (Especially if the logo is kept distinct). You should also have a strict admittance system to ensure only open source projects are included (at the very least to reduce the incentive for USB-IF to take additional offensive measures). There is precedence for this however. If you recall about i2c, other companies decide to call compatible implementations as TWI (two wire interface) to avoid paying licencing fees. USB-IF will not be losing money from this however, since if you are making a normal commercial product (with sizable number of items to sell), you ought to fork up the fee to USB-IF to ensure your product is kosher anyway. tl;dr: Open, but not Universal. But better than the alternative of forking up $5k for a small open source product.