Indian Files Trademark Application for "Indian Renegade"

Indian has filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to reserve the name “Indian Renegade” for use on “motorcycles and structural parts therefor.” The filing follows another trademark application submitted last month for “ Indian Raven“, giving us two potential names for future Indian models.

As usual, the trademark application does not provide any additional clue for what an Indian Renegade could be, leaving us to speculate based on what we know of Indian’s current lineup and what it has in the pipeline.

The recent Raven filing gives us two potential model names that start with an “R”, so it’s possible the two will be connected in some way, perhaps sharing a similar platform. The “renegade” name implies a sense of rebellion, a theme that’s not uncommon for the motorcycle industry (see Rebel, Honda). UPDATE: In late February, Indian filed new trademark applications with the USPTO and the European Union Intellectual Property Office for a stylized “R” logo (see below). This may be related to either the Raven or Renegade names, or possibly both if our theory that the two are connected holds true.

We can probably rule out the Renegade being a tourer; the rebellious theme may be a better fit for a cruiser or, perhaps a streetfighter than a bike that eats up a ton of miles.

One interesting aspect of both recent filings is that they were filed with “Indian” being part of the trademark instead of just “Raven” and “Renegade” on their own. When a company does this, it’s usually because it expects a potential conflict with other existing trademarks. The “Renegade” name is already in use by Bombardier for a Can-Am ATV and Jeep for an SUV. In fact, a Google image search for the term brings up multiple results for Jeep Renegades. These products aren’t motorcycles, but because they are vehicles, and pretty well established ones at that, the USPTO might raise some flags on Indian’s application.

A bigger hurdle may come from UM Motorcycles which sells several small-displacement cruisers with the Renegade name in other markets (the company calls Miami its home base but doesn’t currently sell its bikes in the U.S.). UM doesn’t hold any current trademarks for the name, but the fact there’s already a Renegade motorcycle being sold around the world may pose an obstacle for Indian’s intent to use the name.

We’ll have more information here on Motorcycle.com on the Indian Renegade and other potential new models as it becomes available.