One of the first typewriters produced at the IBM plant on Newtown Pike in Lexington underwent a final inspection in December 1956. For more than 30 years, IBM was Lexmark’s industrial forerunner until 1990, when the New York investment firm Clayton & Dubilier bought at least 80 percent of IBM’s information products division. The resulting company was christened Lexmark, and there’s a common misconception that the name is in honor of Lexington. Not so: “Lex” was inspired by “lexicon,” with “mark” meaning marks on paper.