A Honda Elsinore comeback is on the cards according to a new trademark.

Honda’s Elsinore name was used in the USA on 125cc and 250cc two-stroke off-roaders back in the 1970s but looks set for a comeback after the company filed a new trademark application for the title.

The new trademark application, made in the USA, aims to renew Honda’s right to use the Elsinore name on ‘motorcycles and their structural parts’ – and while it’s not the first time since the original Elsinore models were discontinued that the trademark has been renewed, law changes mean that this time there’s a real prospect of a new bike wearing the title.

Last time Honda renewed its US trademark rights on the Elsinore name was in 2017, sparking rumours that a new retro scrambler was on the way. That didn’t happen, so why should we think anything of the new application? Because in 2022 the US Trademark Modernization Act came into force, with the specific aim of eliminating so-called zombie trademarks, where companies sit on the rights to names even when they’re not being used. Under the Act, any company that registers a trademark must have genuine intention to use that trademark commercially, and since the end of 2023 if a name isn’t used within three years of the registration, expungement proceedings can be used to remove trademarks from the register.