Gear Knobs: The name for Clarkson, Hammond & May’s Amazon Top Gear replacement?

Law firm Olswang – which has worked for Jeremy Clarkson in the past – has registered the trademark’ ‘Gear Knobs’, possibly the name for Clarkson’s new Amazon show.

Top Gear is (or was) big business, so speculation around its new incarnation with Chris Evans, and the ‘New’ Top Gear from Clarkson, Hammond and May with Amazon, are going to generate acres of speculation in the coming months. Like this.

According to BuzzFeed, a law firm, Olswang LLP, which has worked in the past with Jeremy Clarkson on Bedder 6 Ltd, Clarkson’s vehicle for his Top Gear interests, has been busy registering trademarks for a new company – Newincco 1361 Ltd.

The new company has registered ‘Gear Knobs’ and ‘Gear Nobs’ as trademarks as well as ‘Speedbird’, with the former two touted as likely names for the Amazon Prime show, and the latter perhaps some sort of Stig replacement.

It could all make sense (otherwise there would be no point in the story), and the Gear Knobs name does sound like something Clarkson and Wilman could come up with. But does it make commercial sense?

We know Amazon are paying an arm and a leg for the Top Gear trio (the budget appears to be £160 million for three series, with Clarkson reckoned to be on £10 million a year and Hammond and May not a lot less) but would Amazon really fork out that much and not own the rights to the name? After all, what would happen if the new show is a runaway success and Clarkson, Hammond and May jump ship in three years, taking the show’s name with them?

Still, it has legs as a name. But we’d have preferred ‘Top Knobs’.