Ford Trademarks Badlands and Adrenaline in the U.S.

Ten months after it has trademarked the name Adrenaline in Mexico and Canada, Ford Motor Co. has filed a trademark of the same name, as well as Badlands, in the United States, according to Ford Authority.

While there is not a lot of information as to what Ford has in store for the two names, what has been confirmed so far is that both Badlands and Adrenaline are trademarked for “Land motor vehicles, namely, passenger automobiles, pick-up [sic] trucks, sport utility vehicles.”

This leaves a lot of room for people to come up with theories. Among the rumors generated by the trademarking is the possibility for the brand to resurrect the Ford Explorer Sport Trac – a pickup truck based on the skeleton of the Explorer – as well as a new Adrenaline performance model. These claims, however, could be quite a stretch given Ford’s current productions.

The American automaker introduced the all-new rear-wheel-drive Explorer earlier this year. It is also rumored to be working on a Ford Bronco-based model that will compete with the Jeep Gladiator, as well as a Focus-based truck, all expected for release within the next few years.

With all these in Ford’s pipeline, an Adrenaline performance model might be out of the picture for Ford. But for the Badlands trademark, it’s a whole other story.

As previously mentioned, the Ford has plans to release a new Bronco that would rival the Jeep Wrangler. This means that the Badlands line could be Ford’s off-road trim that could go against the Wrangler Rubicon, or a limited edition trim similar to the Wrangler Altitude and Moab.

But despite all the theories, there is an equal likelihood for both the Badlands and Adrenaline to never see the light of day. After all, it wouldn’t be the first time for a carmaker to trademark a name then end up cancelling the project altogether.