Toyota has filed to trademark the Gazoo Racing logo in Canada, a potential sign that the racing and performance sub-brand could be headed to North America. Toyota filed a trademark application for Gazoo Racing’s ‘GR’ logo with the Canadian Intellectual Property Organization on November 21st, 2018. The logo has already appeared on the Europe-only Yaris GRMN, a high-performance version of the Yaris hatchback with a 212 hp supercharged 1.8-liter engine, but has yet to be seen on any Toyotas in the US or Canada.

Toyota also filed to reserve the GR badge in Brunei, Malaysia and Cambodia in the days after the CIPO filing.

Gazoo Racing, or ‘GR’, is taking on a role similar to ‘M’ for BMW going forward. It will serve as Toyota’s performance sub-brand and the automaker has suggested that the 2020 Supra will be sold under the GR banner in Europe.

The Supra would be a good way to introduce North Americans to the GR brand and this filing comes just ahead of the Supra’s debut in Detroit next month. We wouldn’t be surprised if the badge pictured in this filing appears on the highly anticipated sports coupe in some fashion, either as subtle branding or to denote a high-performance version of the vehicle.

The Gazoo Racing brand has an interesting history. As Toyota motorsport boss Koei Saga once told Autocar, Gazoo is derived from the Japanese word for picture or image – ‘gazo’. About 20 years ago, Toyota had begun to diversify its business by selling used cars online and called its image-based used car marketplace ‘Gazoo.com’, using the english spelling of the word. Toyota’s racing division eventually started using the word ‘gazoo’ in place of garage, referencing the well-known car site, and before long, ‘Gazoo Racing’ was the name of its motorsports team.

[Source: CIPO]