Last week, we reported that Ludwig Willisch, CEO of BMW’s North American sales subsidiary, was fighting to offer its clients an M performance version of BMW's top of the line sedan: the 7-Series->ke323. Now, new details suggest that BMW has indeed trademarked the M7->ke4402 name, as well as an even more interesting M10, which were both previously registered in October 2010 (M7) and September 2011 (M10).

For the future M7, things are pretty clear. The next generation 7-Series will finally allow BMW to offer a real competitor for models like the Audi S8->ke1900 and the Mercedes-Benz S63 AMG.

For the M10, all we have to go on is the trademarked name. If we were to speculate, we would say that this is more than likely the name that will be used for a long-denied model: a BMW competitor for the Audi R8->ke1440 and the Mercedes SLS->ke2504. BMW has stated many times that the company would love to offer such a model, but have denied its existence on several occasions.

The search for trademarked names continues with the M1 and M2 names, as well as a bunch of i names, ranging from i1 to i9. Considering the i-sub brand was just in the news for being too ahead of its time, these names will probably sit on the sidelines until 2017 or beyond.

In related news, BMW also trademarked the Corniche name that will most likely be used for a convertible version of the Rolls Royce Ghost->ke3434.

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