Broadly speaking a method and an apparatus is disclosed for enabling vendor-specific communication between devices of a common vendor. More specifically, the present invention provides a method and an apparatus for using vendor-specific cyclic redundancy check (CRC) data to identify a communication as containing vendor-specific data. The method and apparatus of the present invention does not inhibit compatibility between the vendor device and another device operating in accordance with a standard communication protocol. Additionally, the method and apparatus of the present invention allows the devices of the common vendor to implement features and functionality that rely on efficient and protected vendor-specific communication.