General Motors has filed two trademark applications to register the terms Merge and Maven Merge with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), GM Authority has discovered.
Filed on August 7th, 2017, the filing states that the standard character marks will be used to name goods and services in the following categories: bicycles, electric bicycles, motorized bicycles, and structural parts thereof; motors for bicycles; electric conversion kits for bicycles comprised of motors for bicycles and electric handlebar motor controls.
| Application | Serial Number | Filing Date |
|---|---|---|
| Merge | 87558253 | August 7th, 2017 |
| Maven Merge | 87558231 | August 7th, 2017 |
The GM Authority Take
Based on the goods and services categories of the trademarks in question, it would seem as if GM is planning on entering the field of bike/e-bike sharing — areas in which is has typically not competed. However, The General does operate the Maven vehicle sharing service in select U.S. cities. As such, the Maven Merge bike/e-bike sharing service would seem like a natural extension into the new age of transportation, in which sharing of transportation is the going direction.
Stay tuned to GM Authority as we follow this one, as well as all other General Motors news.
Comments
i’m not convinced sharing cars/bikes will be the future of transportation.
seems like this sharing future already exists today in rental car companies like avis.
unless sharing is just as convenient as owning/leasing your own vehicle and much less expensive, what is the advantage?
The advantage is convenience.
And in today’s easy, convenience-first world… convenience is key.
what is more convenient than walking to my garage, getting in my car and driving to my destination whenever i want 24/7?
“what is more convenient than walking to my garage, getting in my car and driving to my destination whenever i want 24/7?”
Not having to pay for it, or having to travel nearly as far to get something. Really, its always been about the best use of someone’s time and money, and with cars becoming prohibitively expensive and gridlock wasting millions of hours each year, car ownership isn’t a convenient option for many.
“Car Sharing” is actually car rental on a subscription basis.
To rent a car from a traditional car rental, I have to go to one of their stations, sign a contract and other paperwork, leave a deposit, and turn the car back with full tank again at the agreed term of rental time.
I have a subscription for the local “car sharing” company, which gives me the right to reserve and then use any of the cars of said company stationed at various places in the region (and other cities, too). I just access the reservation site on the Web and select the car and the time I want to have it. Then I walk up to the car and open the car with my RFID key card, get the actual ignition key and off it goes. There are two cars stationed just 150 meters from my home, an Opel Astra station wagon and a Ford Fiesta (it used to be an Opel Corsa some years ago).
The subscription costs me 9 € per month, the price of the actual rent is one per hour and one per kilometer. Gas and all other expenses are included in the prices. Should the car run out of gas, I have to fill it up and pay with the pay card kept in the car. The rates per hour and per kilometer driven vary depending on the size of the car and the time of day — during night hours it is cheaper, and there is a cap of of hours and kilometers from which it becomes cheaper. If there is no car of my chosing available at the station nearest to me, I can reserve one from another station a little further away.
This is a station based “car sharing” service, i.e. I have to return the car to its fixed base station. There are other, station-less “car sharing” services, where the car can be left and picked up anywhere within a given geographic area, typically some central districts of a city; those cars can typically located by GPS.
With the station based service, I can chose between various car types in the station based “car sharing” (I can chose from a wide range of cars, from a Smart or Mini over the two mentioned above to a comfortable full size car for longer travels or a panel van for a move.
The station less “car sharing” would typically by run with only one single car type, and you can’t reserve a specific car for a specific time and date in, say, the next week (as I did for next Wednesday for a transport of some heavy stuff).
The term “Car Sharing” is actually a mis-nomer. It arose from the beginnings when there was actually one car privately owned which the owner would share with a couple of friends or neighbours. Today this is organized by regular commercial companies. The one which I am subscribed to is part of a league sharing the same booking system, which gives me access to cars in 120 cities, and member of an association of car sharing services with even more cars in other cities which I can use.
The advantage of “Car Sharing” vs. traditional rental car is the easier access because of the long term subscription and electronic reservation, and its advantage vs. personal owned car is the lower fixed costs for month and year and being relieved of having to organize maintenance and repairs. And its more economical on parking space.
This depends, of course, on how often and how far one does have to drive each week and month. If I actually need a car for the daily commute to work, then a personally owned (or leased) car is more economical. It’s just a matter of simple arithmetics.
I should have added that my location is Frankfurt am Main in Germany.