USB Symbol

Way too deep I think.

It's an symbol for end-users to identify with.

It iconifies a bus with different devices connected to it. For what it's worth the symbol you refer to is USB 1.1, a USB 2 trident symbol should have a '+' sign next to the circle.

Pete

Aside from being the USB logo/identifier, it has no meaning - It's a made-up graphic that's reasonably visually-appealing, even when displayed as a molded-in impression on a cable, and is distinctive enough to stick in a consumer's mind. Also, if it's a 2.0 item, it ought to have the little "+" next to (stops and thinks - Is it the arrow, or the circle? And none of mine are easily reachable/visible at the moment... Grrr...) one of the legs, where the 1.1 version has no "+".

That's all it's supposed to be, and all the owners license it to be used for. (yes, you have to buy a license and meet their standards before you can paint, draw, stamp, print, mold, or otherwise use the symbol on something that's for sale)

You know, the symbol

None represents any - See above. If there's any "public, secret, official, or otherwise" meaning beyond "Something with this mark can have something else with this mark plugged into it, or perhaps it can be plugged into the other something - or both", it must be pretty obscure, since yours is the first mention of any such thing I've encountered since USB jumped into the public eye with the debut of the original iMac.

I guess... If you're "easily interested"... :)

Seriously, though, I'd be more inclined to say you're thinking *WAY* too hard about something that doesn't merit much, if anything, more than about 5 seconds of consideration.