Benelli files trademark rights for the brand name ‘Imperiale’

Benelli Q.J. (Qjian Jiang group), the parent company of Benelli has filed for trademark rights for the title ‘Imperiale’, hinting at a potential development of a new motorcycle brand.

The name ‘Imperiale’ was used on a 125cc motorcycle from MotoBi in the 1950’s. Giuseppe Benelli was one of the founders of Benelli in 1911. After a family feud in 1948, he went on to establish the brand MotoBi in Italy a year later. Giuseppe died in 1957. Being a company of larger scale, Benelli acquired MotoBi in 1962.

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The MotoBi Imperiale had a cafe racer-like design, and expect its modern iteration to bear a resemblance to it. It is likely that Benelli will equip the bike with a much bigger powerplant than its forefather. The web media expects Benelli to make an announcement on it at the 2017 EICMA.

In India, DSK Benelli sells the TNT range (TNT 25, TNT 300 & TNT 600i); the faired 302R and the touring motorcycle, TNT 600 GT. The company plans to launch a KTM 390 Duke rival at Auto Expo 2018. Two other motorcycles, the TRK 502 and the Leoncino, are also on the company’s Indian launch plans. This month, it launched the TNT 300 ABS, which is the cheapest ABS offering from the brand in India.