AutoblogGreen

Sometimes, when our helpful readers send in a note to the AutoblogGreen tip line, the message gets lost in the shuffle. You might be able to relate to having an overstuffed email inbox, and know that sometimes things just don't get read on time. Today, I'm finally writing about a tip sent in my reader Mork a good three weeks ago. I was trying to clean out the email pile and noticed that we'd missed this story. Considering that it might reveal a little something about what Ford is up to, it, at the very least, deserves mention.

The news at hand is that in October, Ford filed to protect the trademark "Extend" for "motor vehicles, namely plug-in hybrid automobiles." I honestly don't know how to read trademark filings, but it certainly looks like Ford is serious about the name, based on information from the Trademark Applications and Registrations Retrieval (TARR) page. The name certainly fits well. It's simple, has a few clever meanings (make your car or our oil supply go further) and it has that all-important "X" letter that seems to be so important to brands these days (see also: Auto X Prize, Phoenix, Xebra). As for Ford, what will we see first? A production version of the plug-in Ford Escape hybrid, a plug-in hybrid Escort or something else? What's your guess?

[Source: Trademork, belated h/t to Mork]