Not much of a surprise. Still, I wonder how the Commerce Bank that TD bought feels about this. I bet they’re somewhere between bummed and pissed.

You know for a fact that the management team of the 11-branch Commerce that filed suit against TD is doing backflips today, chanting “Victory for us little guys!”

Commerce Bank buyer dropping ‘Commerce’ name over legal challenge
Philadelphia Business Journal

Because of a legal challenge, the brand name emerging from the merger between Commerce Bank and TD Banknorth has been changed to TD Bank rather than the TD Commerce Bank name announced this past spring.

The company will keep the “America’s Most Convenient Bank” phrase that Commerce used.

In May, a federal court in New England provisionally prevented the company from using the TD Commerce Bank name on signage and marketing materials in certain Massachusetts counties. The Commerce Bank & Trust Co. of Worcester, Mass., had filed a lawsuit challenging the use of the TD Commerce name in its markets.

“In our view, the well-recognized TD name combined with Commerce Bank clearly distinguished us from other banks with Commerce in their name,” TD Banknorth CEO Bharat Masrani said. “We’re disappointed that the court felt differently, but rather than spend countless time as well as valuable resources fighting this legal challenge in court, we have decided to remain focused on our customers and employees and move forward under our new brand name of TD Bank, America’s Most Convenient Bank.”

TD Banknorth’s parent, Toronto-based TD Bank Financial Group, bought Commerce Bancorp of Cherry Hill, N.J., in March for $8.5 billion. Commerce is located in the mid-Atlantic region and Florida with nearly 500 branches. The Commerce name, which has been synomymous with a customer-friendly retail strategy, will no longer exist when the bank formally changes its name this fall.

TD Bank Financial said the combined bank will still follow its original schedule for a comprehensive re-branding effort for its 1,100 combined branch network. Current Commerce branches will be the first to rebrand as TD Bank this fall and current TD Banknorth locations will finish re-branding in 2009.

In addition, the company will announce a new name for the TD Banknorth Garden in Boston by the end of 2008, with re-branding activities taking place in 2009.

Bank officials said branches will continue to have the same extended hours. The bank has dual headquarters in Cherry Hill and TD Banknorth’s original headquarters of Portland, Maine. The combined bank has $119 billion in assets in nearly 1,100 branches from Maine to Florida.