Toyota Trademarks The MR-S Brand In Denmark

Toyota’s plan to revive its mid-engine sports car might have just taken a strange turn. The Japanese car company has been trying to bring back the MR2 for years, but now it might not be bringing it back at all. Not as the MR2, at least, because a new trademark filing from Europe suggests that in at least one other country, the Toyota sports car could be getting the name it used to wear in its homeland.

A Mid-Engine Toyota By Any Other Name

When Toyota launched the third generation of its mid-engined two-seater in 1999, the changes weren’t limited to engine and chassis. In nearly every market, the car got a new name. In the US, it was the MR2 Spyder. In most of Europe, it was the MR2 Roadster, but to add confusion, it was called the MR Roadster (without the 2) in France and Belgium. MR2 in those countries sounds like the cruder term for poo. In Japan, the car was called the MR-S, which was a new initialism, and stood for Midship Runabout-Sports.

Now Toyota has filed for the MR-S trademark with the Danish Patent and Trademark Office. The application was made quite recently, so it hasn’t yet been granted. Toyota also holds the trademark to the MR-S name in China, but no application has been made in the U.S. Applying for the trademark in Denmark could allow it to be recognized EU-wide, but it’s not clear if Toyota has applied for that broader protection or for a more limited Denmark-only use.

Nobody else holds the MR2 trademark in that country, so it doesn’t seem to be a matter of trying to avoid an intellectual property conflict there. We also can’t find an example of it being slang there, as it is in French. Toyota does appear to still plan to use the MR2 name in the U.S. It reapplied for that trademark this time last year, though the status with the United States Patent and Trademark Office still shows as filed, not Active.

Toyota Wants More Fun Cars

The Japanese automaker has made it clear it wants fun cars in its lineup, and it doesn’t want to limit that to mainstream-based cars like the GR Corolla or even the GR Supra and 86. One of the most obvious signs of life for a mid-engine Toyota came in 2023 when it revealed the FT-Se. That car was electric, but it had mid-engine proportions and was expected to have a mid-engine balance.

One source has even claimed that the MR2 replacement would get the Celica badge. That report surfaced in September, though the source of that one can be very correct and very wrong in equal measure, so don’t bet the farm on the Celica moving from front-drive to engine in the middle.

Toyota’s development of a GR Yaris with the engine behind the driver has perpetuated the rumors of a new mid-engine sports car, as that prototype is the perfect way to hide what you’re really doing, as nobody would ever believe that an automaker today would make the equivalent of the Renault 5 Turbo.

Source: Danish Patent Office