More nortons are coming

Company ambitions made clear by four new model name trademarks

Norton interim CEO John Russell recently told Bike that once the new team had a handle on the state of the company, they would start, ‘turning Norton into what it can be – deciding which markets we should go into, which products we should make.’ And six months after TVS announced their purchase of Norton, it seems that point has been reached. Norton have filed trademark applications with the European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) for four new model names: Combat, Electra, Fastback and Navigator.

As you’d expect, the names all hark from Norton’s past, some with less than glorious reputations. The Combat, for example, was a variant of the original Commando that was rushed into production with an excessive compression ratio and became famous for exploding. Good name though. The Navigator, meanwhile, was a decent 350, the Fastback was a variant of the Commando and the Electra was a short-lived 400 with an electric start.

The Atlas, Nomad and Ranger names are also covered in the trademark applications, but we presume these will be kept for the new 650 models that were shown at the NEC last year. Russell said that these machines just needed, ‘a bit more development work,’ before going into production.

Norton also registered the Norton and Atlas names for all manner of clothing, belts, training schemes, baby bibs and safety equipment. We think it’s more than fair to say the new company will be taking a leaf out of Harley-davidson’s voluminous accessory book.