Originally Posted by v1nce
In regards to Merc bike, hmm that is very interesting and news to me. Where did you learn that and do you have any links perhaps?
I subscribe to the Brompton newsgroup via Yahoo Groups. From what I recall, recently there was some sort of bike festival or trade show (in England, I think) in which Merc brought their bikes for display. A bunch of Brompton enthusiasts showed up and started asking how they were able to mimic the Brompton design, and whether they had permission. They notified Brompton who was aware that they were trying to sell a bunch of Merc's in England. Brompton allowed them to sell their inventory, but mandated that they could not import further bikes. Merc complied.
Here's a
link.