Hardcore, deep-dive Toyota fans know that, in the 21st century, the rarest, most sought-after ne plus ultra of Japanese domestic market (JDM) Toyota-branded high performance is represented by four initials: GRMN. Only a quintet of rare, limited-edition Toyotas were deemed worthy of wearing this vaunted badge. Just 100 copies each of four of them were […]

The long-rumored Lexus LC F became one step closer to reality when a European trademark application surfaced, as first reported by AutoGuide.com on February 4th. Our friends at the Lexus Enthusiast blog added that the actual European Union Intellectual Property Office filing for LC F was carried out the day before, under number 016313173. Australia’s […]

Although the Fall 2016/2017 auto show season kicked off in Miami with world debuts of a Nissan mid-life facelift and new model/trim level variants from Nissan and Ford, it rolls into high gear at Los Angeles Auto Show in mid-November with “more than 50 vehicle debuts and 25 press conferences”, according to an e-mailed PR […]

A little over 2 weeks after Toyota filed a trio of UX trademarks – presumably for the Lexus brand – another new crossover/SUV-centric trademark surfaced in Europe: RX 350 L. As with UX, the news first appeared on AutoGuide and then expanded upon in far greater detail by the Lexus Enthusiast blog. Three days after […]

The month of February saw a trio of notable trademark filings by Toyota that seemingly hint at the Lexus brand’s 12th model line and their 5th crossover/SUV, the UX. Initially revealed by AutoGuide and then expanded upon in far greater detail by the Lexus Enthusiast blog, the UX initials (we definitely agree with Lexus Enthusiast […]

Over 4 months before it was actually announced, we presciently wondered if Scion might join Saab, Mercury, Plymouth, Pontiac, Oldsmobile and so many others in the pantheon of defunct automotive brands. And, as we pondered the question of how existing Scion models would transition to the Toyota brand, we noted that U.S. trademarks for Auris […]

Since last June, when we reported on several U.S. trademarks filed by Toyota and its Scion and Lexus brands, there have been a number of new trademark and patent filings by Japan’s largest carmaker that are worthy of note. CH-R…er…C-HR On September 1, as the Toyota Europe Newsroom announced the global debut of the second […]

This past June 7th, what started out as simple commentary on the dyslexic’s delight (or would that be nightmare?) that a Toyota S-FR trademark could turn out to be mushroomed into a trivia buff’s revelations of a number of dead or abandoned Toyota trademarks and the heretofore unpublished discovery of a new Prius Prime trademark […]

In the course of researching and writing our previous Kaizen Factor story on recent Toyota and Scion trademark filings, we also stumbled upon a number of new trademarks surely earmarked for the Lexus brand. Most of these are simply a matter of United States Patent and Trademark Office filings for trademarks previously registered in Europe […]

For an automotive make or model online fan forum to discover a new model trademark filing ahead of the A-list big boys of automotive journalism is hardly new or surprising in this day and age. I’ve been there. So chalk up one more for David, for the little guy when the administrator of the Supra […]

My.IS‘s Canada national forum moderator k3vo has learned that, on Monday 24 November 2014, Lexus registered U.S. and Canadian trademarks for LC500 (U.S. Application 86462781 / Canadian Application No. 1704062) and LC500h (U.S. Application 86462851 / Canadian Application No. 1704063). On Tuesday 25 November, Lexus followed suit in Australia, according to Kevin Watts of the […]

In 1994, during Johan de Nysschen’s second year as general manager of Audi’s operations in his native South Africa, the carmaker introduced a new model naming system brilliant in its simplicity: the letter A (for Audi) followed by a single-digit number denoting a given model’s size and position in the overall hierarchy of vehicle offerings. […]

Another day…another report of a Toyota trademark filing. Or two of them, to be precise: NX 200t and NX 300h, both filed on 15 October 2012 for “use in association with automobiles and structural parts thereof”. In the United States, Trademark Application No. 85754116 was filed for NX 200t, and Trademark Application No. 85754176 for […]

As we’ve written a number of times in the past, we assiduously follow trademark filings by Toyota, as well as its Lexus and Scion brands for the clues and insights they provide into future product plans. As editor of my.IS, this author has written about the United States and Canadian filings for Lexus’ IS 250C […]

As we reminded you in an earlier Kaizen Factor story, poking around trademark and copyright applications and registrations filed by carmakers can provide vital clues to their possible future plans. We have just learned of two new trademark applications filed by Toyota Motor Corporation. The first of these, HSD, was filed on 23 November 2010 […]