The English intellectual property law firm Blair & Co. has teamed up (not merged) with the patent attorneys Marks & Clerk. It now calls itself Marks & Clerks Solicitors (no relation to me). Joint website here.
According to Edward Fennell’s In the City section of the Times Online Tuesday law section (free registration required):
bq. The two firms regularly work together. Insiders suggest that the rebranding, unprecedented in the UK, stems from European and US clients who prefer a one-stop-shop for their IP and trademark services. My view is that the name Blair is no longer quite the selling point as once it was for anything to do with the law.
Isn’t the brand name Marks & Clerk wonderfully eponymous for Trademark Agents and Solicitors. And, wouldn’t that name rhyme, as pronounced by the British? (i.e. “marks & clark”)
Yes, great name. It does rhyme, and it would be even better if the Clerk weren’t a last name, but because one of them was once a clerk, but probably not. I remember the bookshop in the book 84 Charing Cross Road, Marks & Co (no full stop) was short for Marks & Cohen.