From steam engines to satellites, Glasgow has always been a city that makes things happen.
As 2025 draws to a close, we look back on a year-long celebration of Glasgow’s 850th anniversary - a milestone that offered us the opportunity to explore the city’s extraordinary contributions to innovation across sectors. For Marks & Clerk, this celebration is personal, as Glasgow is woven into our history.
Celebrating a city of innovation
Throughout the Glasgow 850 series, we highlighted the sectors where the city continues to lead:
- Energy Innovation & Sustainability – paying tribute to Glasgow’s role in powering industry and shaping the future of renewables.
- Space Technology & Fintech – showcasing how Glasgow has become a European hub for satellite design and manufacture, and its role in the invention of the cash machine
- MedTech & Chemistry – exploring breakthroughs that shape healthcare and green chemistry.
- Food & Drink – celebrating the home of some of the most well-known brands in the food and drink industry.
These stories remind us that Glasgow’s spirit of invention is as strong today as it was centuries ago.
Our roots in Glasgow
For Marks & Clerk, Glasgow is more than a city of clients and collaborators, it’s part of our DNA. Sir Dugald Clerk, one of our founders, was born here in 1854. Clerk was a pioneering engineer whose invention of the two-stroke engine transformed heavy industry and powered a new era of mobility and manufacturing (read more about his story here).
But Clerk’s vision extended beyond invention. He understood that protecting intellectual property was essential for progress, and in 1887 he co-founded Marks & Clerk alongside George Croydon Marks, to safeguard the technologies shaping the modern world.
Our Glasgow practice was, in many ways, ‘Clyde-built.’ In the early days, we supported the industrial innovations that defined the city’s global reputation. Today, that legacy continues at The Beacon, where our UK and European patent and trade mark attorneys work at the heart of Glasgow’s business district. From mechanical engineering and electronics to energy and life sciences, we provide tailored IP services to start-ups, SMEs, universities, and multinationals, helping ideas thrive in a competitive global market.
Glasgow’s next chapter
Glasgow’s story is far from finished. As the city looks to the next 850 years, it stands at the forefront of sectors that will define the future: clean energy, advanced manufacturing, space technology, and biotechnology.
At Marks & Clerk, we are proud to play a role in this journey, protecting the innovations that will drive sustainability, connectivity, and health for generations to come.
Innovation is Glasgow’s heritage. It’s also its future. And we’re here to make sure that future is secure.
/Passle/6130aaa9400fb30e400b709a/MediaLibrary/Images/2025-12-23-15-57-36-711-694abbf0fb64d8ffeb972d31.png)
/Passle/6130aaa9400fb30e400b709a/MediaLibrary/Images/2025-01-14-16-53-07-386-67869673ec796a2382af0949.png)
/Passle/6130aaa9400fb30e400b709a/MediaLibrary/Images/2024-05-16-11-37-11-800-6645efe75f1e870076120de2.png)