ISxx0C: The upcoming 2-door Lexus IS gets a name

16674For most people in the U.S., the primary significance of 15 April 2008 was Tax Day, that dreaded deadline by which you must file (and, in some cases, pay) your personal Federal Income Tax. On that date, however, Lexus did something equally significant: they filed applications with both the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and the Canadian Trade-Marks Office for IS250C, IS300C and IS350C trademarks.


For the terminally curious, the specific filings are:



United States:
IS250C: Application No. 77448695
IS300C: Application No. 77448728
IS350C: Application No. 77448711

Canada:
IS250C: Application No. 1391370
IS300C: Application No. 1391371
IS350C: Application No. 1391376

This bit of news is significant on a number of levels. For one thing, it kills speculation that Lexus would consider the upcoming 2-door variant of the Lexus IS a separate model line with its own IC prefix, as some past rumo(u)rs had suggested. More importantly, the filing of an IS300C trademark increases the likelihood that Lexus has <A HREF="http://my.is/forums/f41/what-should-lexus-build-2nd-generation-is300-rest-world-321143/">answered our prayers and decided to build a 3GR-FSE-powered 2nd-generation IS300 for North America</A> to plug the huge 102-hp and 92 lb/ft of torque gap between the IS250 and IS350.

Also noteworthy is the lack of an IS-FC (or IS-CF) filing of some sort. Does this mean that there won't be a 2-door variant of the IS-F? Or that it will wear the same IS-F moniker as the sedan? Or that Lexus will file for this separately, at a later date? Time to trot out the worn-out "time will tell" cliché...

Our thanks go to my.IS Canadian national Moderator k3vo for bringing this significant piece of news to our attention in <A HREF="http://my.is/forums/f87/convertible-spy-photo-354379/index2.html#post5366255">a couple of posts in the General Discussion IS Convertible Spy Photo thread.</A>