USB Software Licensing Dongle

Has anyone ever messed with getting an 8-bit microcontroller to recognize and read a USB software licensing dongle?

I'm working on designing a device that will have certain extra features, but will require the use of a software licensing dongle (which must be purchased from the company) in order to unlock the extra features. In my circuit I will be designing in a FTDI Vinculum II USB host controller that will communicate with the host microcontroller via UART. So I'll have the hardware to do it but beyond that I'm trying to figure out where to start.

Has anyone dealt with this sort of thing before?

hi John,
I use the free PL2303 Prolific Drivers, online download.
E

**broken link removed**

From what I have read... The best thing todo is make a USB dongle from the PicUSB range and use a routine within the pic to provide a key when asked.. You can do it over HID if you encrypt the value, then only you can read it...