General Motors Files For “Turbo-Fire” Trademark
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General Motors has filed a trademark application for the word Turbo-Fire. Filed on August 9, 2012 and carrying serial number 85699411, the application for the Decals category of goods and services coincides with the filing date for the Turbo-Jet trademark that GM Authority exclusively discovered last week.
Currently, the trademark application for Turbo-Fire has a status of 681 (Publication/Issue Review Complete) and has a published for opposition date of October 30, 2012 — at which point entities that are opposed to GM acquiring the trademark will have an opportunity to dispute same.
The GM Authority Take
If our assumption is correct in that General Motors is trademarking the Turbo-Jet name to use it in a future (possibly turbo-charged V6) engine line that would compete with EcoBoost, then Turbo-Fire could simply be an extension of the Turbo-”X” line, perhaps slotting above (or below) engines carrying the Turbo-Jet name. Time will tell whether this turns out to be the case or not… but yours truly is a growing fan of the Turbo-Fire and Turbo-Jet names for boosted powerplant lines.
What do you make of Turbo-Fire? Sound off in the comments.
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Sounds like something Buick will put in their lineup
Why Buick? I see this this being a step above Turbo Jet… or maybe below it?
it doesn’t suit well for chevrolet or GMC. Definitely not a Cadillac either
What? We had a 1968 Chevy Bel-Air wagon that said “turbo-fire” in a large red decal on top of the air cleaner can. It was a 307 and I think it stated “200 Horsepower” (at the crank no doubt, at the wheels there were probably 110 horseys). They didn’t own the trademark then?
Michael, perhaps they did own the TM then… but they’re filing for it again now, which means they let it lapse (assuming they did own the mark back then). And since filing for and finalizing ownership of a TM requires that you use the mark in a real-world product or service, there’s more than a good chance that we will see Turbo-Fire and Turbo-Jet on the sides of at least some vehicles in the near future.
Buick should dump the 2.5L normally aspirated engine and just go with a turbo lineup. 1.6L, 2.0L and a V6 twin-turbo for the big cars with awd. Either turbo-fire or turbo-jet would be great to build marketing around.
Is Turbo thrift next?
Just build great engines. If they’re worthy of a name, the customers will give them. If they just get you to work and back, who cares? If they give pleasure to the small of your back without vibrating your dentures out, then give them a name.
“Turbo-Fire” would be a great name for an Japanese all-girl rock band.
From Wikipedia..
From 1955–74, the 5.7l small-block engine was known as the “Turbo-Fire V8″.
There was no 5.7L from 1955 to 1968
Ooops! My bad; misread the wikipedia article (link below). It read:From 1955–74, the small-block engine was known as the “Turbo-Fire V8″. Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_small-block_engine
and really it sounds very old school if they’re going to put it on today’s GM lineup
I would agree that the name does lend itself to a Buick product. It reminds me of the Grand National and Buick Riviera T-Type models of the eighties–even though I wasn’t yet around in the eighties.
Maybe they’re building another Riviera!