And as a side effect to that story - I recently needed to purchase a USB to RS232 adapter to program a router and I went explicitly out of my way to make sure the adapter I purchased didn't use an FTDI chip.

FTDI is a name I won't be forgetting anytime soon.

Wouldn’t that be downright illegal? Moreover, someone bricking my hardware would inspire me to forcefully return said “brick” to them, through their nearest window.

> FTDI bricking your hardware if they think it's counterfeit

It's not quite the same thing. Their driver does things that work with the original hardware.

If a different chip uses the same USB ID, they're asking for trouble.

(of course good faith is unlikely in this case)