Just as Royal Enfield was busy putting the finishing touches on its upcoming Himalayan 450 release, a new and very interesting trademark application appeared in the Intellectual Property India database. While it’s reasonable for Enfield to release its next Himalayan ahead of anything else on the 450 platform, OEMs in 2023 don’t typically go to the trouble of developing entirely new powerplants if they aren’t also planning to base multiple bikes on them.
That’s why the newly filed trademark application for a Royal Enfield Guerrilla 450 is an intriguing one. Since it has the 450 right in the name, there’s not any great mystery about what powerplant a future Guerrilla model might use. What shape the Guerrilla might take is another matter.
The application was filed on August 23, 2023, by Enfield parent company Eicher Motors Limited, as all Enfield trademarks are wont to do. Although the application has been published, the trademark has not yet been approved by the Indian government—there's no official journal number or date, and it doesn’t have dates in the “Used Since” and “Valid Up To” fields.
Once trademarks receive official approval in India, all four of those fields are filled with information. For our purposes, the most interesting information to be found in these trademark listings other than the actual trademark are those “Used Since” and “Valid Up To” dates.
Gallery: Open Royal Enfield Trademark Filings, August 2023
An important thing to remember when looking at any company’s patent and trademark filings is this: Just because a company files patent and trademark applications doesn’t necessarily guarantee when or even if that company will make use of that material.
Sometimes, patented ideas don’t end up working out for any number of reasons, and they never find their way onto production machinery. Other times, trademarks are filed to protect specific names and prevent anyone else from using them—and also, so that an OEM has the option to use them at its leisure.
Bearing that in mind, it may be useful to review some of Royal Enfield’s other trademarks that are currently still valid according to IP India—but that aren’t currently in use. Some are model names that Enfield has previously used and retired—and some are names that it has yet to use in the 21st century.
While the Royal Enfield Hunter finally broke cover in 2022, the company first applied for that trademark back in 2019. So, it’s also worth remembering that OEMs may take their sweet time readying new bikes to go along with any trademarks they’ve officially had approved. We still have yet to see the Sherpa, which is a trademark that Enfield applied for at around the same time as the Hunter. We also haven’t seen a new Flying Flea or Roadster yet—and those trademarks were filed back in 2020.
With that said, here are some other Enfield trademark filings on record with IP India that don’t correspond to any currently available bikes in the 2023 Enfield lineup. Some of these names have been used in the past, like the Thunderbird and the Trial (as in the Bullet Trial), but Enfield is a brand that loves to resurrect its historic badges in the present.
- Royal Enfield Himalayan Sleet, which is valid through January 22, 2028
- Royal Enfield Himalayan Tourer, which is valid through June 29, 2030
- Royal Enfield Tourer, which is valid through June 29, 2030
- Royal Enfield Thunder Bird, which is valid through August 8, 2031
- Royal Enfield Café Racer, which is valid through April 15, 2032
- Royal Enfield Club Man, which is valid through April 15, 2032
- Royal Enfield Trial, which is valid through April 15, 2032
- Royal Enfield Trip, which is valid through November 16, 2029
- Royal Enfield Thunderbird ‘Logout’, wich is valid through November 16, 2029
- Royal Enfield ‘Logout’, which is valid through November 16, 2029
- Royal Enfield Cruzr, which is valid through June 29, 2030
As Autocar Professional points out, additional 450-platform body styles seen in the investor presentation “include a roadster, café racer, scrambler, and a very off-road-focused adventure bike.” Might Enfield use any of the names listed above for some of its future 450 platform models? Anything is possible at this point—and as always, we’ll caution that it’s all speculation up until something is officially announced.
