Automotive logos don’t on a regular basis suggest a model new product is imminent. They solely value only a few hundred {{dollars}} to file. It may moreover make sense to trademark an historic determine out of due diligence to make it possible for one different producer cannot use it. Take any submitting with a grain of salt. Nevertheless totally different events, a trademark submitting can herald one factor pretty important, similar to the Ford Maverick.
Yesterday, we had one different fascinating enchancment on the automotive trademark entrance. Ford filed an software program to trademark “Ranchero” for use in motor autos, electrical autos, and pickup vans.
What Is The Ford Ranchero?
Ford used the Ranchero nameplate from the late Fifties to the late Seventies. It was an affordable two-door passenger vehicle with seating for two (or three) in entrance and a full-size truck mattress on the once more – what Australians would identify a ute. Chevrolet offered a further well-known rival: the El Camino. Ford moreover constructed V8-powered muscle truck variations of the Ranchero, similar to the one pictured above based totally on the normal Ford Torino. Ford stopped making Rancheros in 1979, preserving the Courier, a rebadged Mazda compact pickup, and later the Ranger inside the lineup as de facto replacements.
Why Did Ford Trademark Ranchero?
The fast reply for this question is: we don’t know however. Ford did reply to a DrivingOnRoad inquiry regarding the Ranchero trademark, nonetheless mannequin representatives declined to specify what, if any, plans the automaker may have for it.
“Trademark functions are supposed to guard the phrases, designs and symbols that decide Ford’s providers. We routinely file logos inside the common course of enterprise nonetheless they aren’t basically an indication of newest enterprise or product plans.”
– Ford Spokesperson
Deploying our deductive reasoning caps, it’s laborious to see Ford recreating the outdated Ranchero as a like-for-like vehicle. Even when Ford wished a ute-style pickup, there’s no vehicle to base it on. Ford has practically totally reworked to vans, SUVs, and crossovers. The one passenger vehicle inside the lineup is the Mustang. A Mustang ute pickup feels unlikely, nonetheless then as soon as extra, you presumably can go to a dealership correct now and get {an electrical} crossover with Mustang badges.
Ranchero might make sense as a repute for a further customary, unibody platform-based, compact pickup. Nevertheless Ford already has that with the Maverick. Nonetheless, a two-door Maverick Ranchero with an prolonged mattress may presumably be fascinating. It would embody the Ranchero spirit and characterize the earlier truck interval when most had been single-cab autos with an even bigger mattress. Then as soon as extra, why complicate points with what would undoubtedly be a a lot much less customary mannequin of a vehicle that’s selling properly as-is?
Might The Ranchero Be Ford’s Low value Electrical Truck?
Ford does have one future product coming that would presumably be a potential match for the Ranchero nameplate. Ford is able to disclose its new cheap EV platform subsequent week, which CEO Jim Farley has likened to a “Model T second.” That new platform ought to offer a model new electrical crossover and a model new electrical pickup.
Ford has leaned on its historic nameplates for model new autos at the moment. Clearly, the mannequin revived the Bronco determine for its Jeep Wrangler and Jeep Compass opponents. Ford moreover used the Maverick nameplate for a compact vehicle inside the Seventies, and SUVs abroad in later a very long time. Repurposing Ranchero as a small, car-based electrical pickup might make sense.
However when Ford had been using the Ranchero nameplate for that truck, it could want made sense to protected the trademark for the determine months, if not years, up to now. Making use of only a few days sooner than the launch might be chopping points a bit shut.
Provide: US Patent & Trademark Office