Harley-Davidson Bronx On The Return?
Cycle News Staff | May 10, 2022
One of the casualties of former Harley-Davidson CEO Matt Levatich’s resignation in early 2020 was the Bronx, a midsize naked bike that was to be powered by the new Revolution Max 975cc V-twin currently found in the Nightster, which Cycle News will be running on a test on very soon.
The Bronx was part of Harley’s “More Roads to Harley-Davidson” product strategy that also produced the LiveWire and the Pan America, but when Levatich left and new CEO Jochen Zeitz took the reins, Harley’s marketing quickly reverted back to the cruiser and touring market that served it so well in the past.
Now it appears the Bronx might be in for a revival, as Harley-Davidson has filed a new trademark application using the Bronx name.
Is the Bronx back on the drawing board for Harley-Davidson?
Spotted by eagle-eye UK reporter Ben Purvis, he reports on Bikesocial.co.uk that the new application “comes in the wake of a change to U.S. trademark law, the Trademark Modernization Act, which came into force in December. The rule change is intended to make it easier to cancel unused trademarks, opening the door for owner’s rights over trademarks to be removed three years after they’re registered if those trademarks haven’t been used commercially. Harley originally applied for rights to the Bronx name back in 2017, so while the old trademark remains active, it’s lack of use means it could be open to be challenged.”
The new Bronx application is titled under “B1.” This is a title that states with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as “Intent-to-use,” which basically means that if you register the trademark, you have to create the product.
At the Sportster S launch last year, we heard rumors of the Bronx actually going into production in the near future, but no confirmation (or denial) was given by the head honchos at Harley-Davidson. Should the Bronx indeed make it to production, it would go against the likes of Indian’s FTR1200, Ducati Monster and Yamaha MT-09. Watch this space. CN
