Luke’s IP law research primarily involves using empirical and theoretical insights to shed light on interesting (and sometimes controversial) aspects of intellectual property, such as the interplay between property owners and users in free-sharing creative environments (including those of theatre, open-source software and traditional music). His PhD research (2007-2011) involved empirical analysis of the relationship between Irish traditional music and copyright using interviews and survey data gathered from traditional musicians. His work on theatre and copyright includes a 2014 article in the Modern Law Review investigating copyright in the world of theatre, whereby he interviewed playwrights, directors and actors about the relationship between their theatrical practices and the norms of copyright. His work on law and trade marks resulted in a 2015 article on trade marks, brands and anthropological marketing in the Journal of Law and Society. More recently he has been investigating how intellectual property law interacts with artificial intelligence and interactive robotics as part of the Horizon2020 project Inclusive Robotics for a Better Society (INBOTS - http://inbots.eu/).

In addition to IP law, Luke conducts research on constitutionalism in the post-British Empire period, including a project with Dr Mara Malagodi (CUHK) & Professor Thomas Poole (LSE) that resulted in a 2019 symposium issue of the International Journal of Constitutional Law (I-CON) focused on the Dominion constitutions in Ireland, India, Pakistan and Ceylon (Sri Lanka).

• Enrico Bonadio & Luke McDonagh, Standard Essential Patents and the Internet of Things (European Parliament, 2019)

• Luke McDonagh,‘UK Patent Law and Copyright Law after Brexit: Potential Consequences,’ CIGI-BIICL Brexit: The International Legal Implications Paper Series No. 3 (2017)

• Christian Helmers, Yassine Lefouili & Luke McDonagh, 'Evaluation of the Reforms of the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court 2010-2013,' UK Intellectual Property Office (July 2015)

• Christian Helmers, Yassine Lefouili & Luke McDonagh, 'Examining Patent Cases at the Patents Court and Intellectual Property Enterprise Court 2007-2013' UK Intellectual Property Office (March 2015)

• Luke McDonagh, 'Exploring perspectives of the Unified Patent Court and the Unitary Patent within the Business and Legal Communities' UK Intellectual Property Office (July 2014)

Intellectual Property Law: LL251

Trade Mark Law: LL4BQ

Performing Copyright: Law, Theatre and Authorship (Oxford: Hart, 2021)

Based on empirical research, this innovative book explores issues of performativity and authorship in the theatre world under copyright law and addresses several inter-connected questions: who is the author and first owner of a dramatic work? Who gets the credit and the licensing rights? What rights do the performers of the work have? Given the nature of theatre as a medium reliant on the re-use of prior existing works, tropes, themes and plots, what happens if an allegation of copyright infringement is made against a playwright? Furthermore, who possesses moral rights over the work?

To evaluate these questions in the context of theatre, the first part of the book examines the history of the dramatic work both as text and as performative work. The second part explores the notions of authorship and joint authorship under copyright law as they apply to the actual process of creating plays, referring to legal and theatrical literature, as well as empirical research. The third part looks at the notion of copyright infringement in the context of theatre, noting that cases of alleged theatrical infringement reach the courts comparatively rarely in comparison with music cases, and assessing the reasons for this with respect to empirical research. The fourth part examines the way moral rights of attribution and integrity work in the context of theatre. The book concludes with a prescriptive comment on how law should respond to the challenges provided by the theatrical context, and how theatre should respond to law.

Very original and innovative, this book proposes a ground-breaking empirical approach to study the implications of copyright law in society and makes a wonderful case for the need to consider the reciprocal influence between law and practice.

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Intellectual Property Law (Oxford University Press, 2019)‬ (with S. Karapapa)

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European Patent Litigation in the Shadow of the Unified Patent Court (Edward Elgar, 2016)

With the introduction of the Unified Patent Court (UPC) and the new European Patent with Unitary Effect, the European patent litigation system is undergoing a set of fundamental reforms. This timely book assesses the current state of European patent litigation by analysing recently published data on Europe's four major patent jurisdictions - the UK, Germany, France and the Netherlands - and also looks ahead to examine what the impact of the UPC is likely to be on Europe's patent litigation system in the near future.

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• Christian Helmers, Yassine Lefouili, Brian Love and Luke McDonagh, ‘The Effect of Fee Shifting on Litigation: Evidence from a Policy Innovation in Intermediate Cost Shifting’ American Law and Economics Review 23 (2021) 1-44.
• Enrico Bonadio, Plamen Dinev and Luke McDonagh, ‘Artificial Intelligence as Inventor: Exploring the Consequences for Patent Law’ Intellectual Property Quarterly 1 (2021) 48-66.
• Enrico Bonadio & Luke McDonagh, ‘Artificial Intelligence as Producer and Consumer of Copyright Works: Evaluating the Consequences of Algorithmic Creativity’ Intellectual Property Quarterly 2 (2020), 112-137.
• Ana Alba Betancourt, Enrico Bonadio & Luke McDonagh, ‘Social Innovation and University Intellectual Property: Insights from the UK and Mexico’ European Intellectual Property Review 42(5) (2020), 293-304.
• ‪‪Enrico Bonadio, Tiffany Sillanpää & Luke McDonagh, ‘Intellectual Property Aspects of the Japan-EU Economic Partnership Agreement’ International Trade Law and Regulation 2 (2020), 87–98.
• Luke McDonagh, 'Losing Ireland, Losing the Empire: Dominion Status and the Irish Constitutions of 1922 and 1937' International Journal of Constitutional Law (I-CON) 17(4) (2019), 1192–1212.
• Mara Malagodi, Luke McDonagh & Thomas Poole, ‘New Dominion constitutionalism at the twilight of the British Empire: An introduction’ International Journal of Constitutional Law 17(4) (2019), 1166–1172.
• ‪Mara Malagodi, Luke McDonagh & Thomas Poole, ‘The Dominion model of transitional constitutionalism’ International Journal of Constitutional Law 17 (4) (2019), 1283–1300.
• ‪Enrico Bonadio, Luke McDonagh, & Christopher Arvidsson, ‘Intellectual property aspects of robotics’ European Journal of Risk Regulation 9(4) (2018), 655–676.
• Christian Helmers, Yassine Lefouili, Brian Love & Luke McDonagh, 'Who Needs a Copyright Small Claims Court? Evidence from the U.K.'s IP Enterprise Court' Berkeley Technology Law Journal Commentaries (2018).
• Katrin Cremers, Max Ernicke, Fabian Gaessler, Dietmar Harhoff, Christian Helmers, Luke McDonagh, Paula Schliessler & Nicolas van Zeebroeck, 'Patent Litigation in Europe,' European Journal of Law and Economics 44(1) (2017), 1-44.
• Luke McDonagh, 'Two Questions for Professor Drassinower,' Intellectual Property Journal 29 (1) (2016), 71-76.
• Luke McDonagh, 'From Brand Performance to Consumer Performativity -Assessing European Trade Mark Law After the Rise of Anthropological Marketing,' Journal of Law & Society 42(4) (2015), 611-636.
• Luke McDonagh, 'Plays, Performances and Power Struggles - Examining Copyright's "Integrity" in the Field of Theatre,' The Modern Law Review 77(4) (2014), 533-562.
• Christian Helmers, Brian Love & Luke McDonagh, 'Is there a Patent Troll Problem in the UK?,' Fordham Intellectual Property, Media and Entertainment Law Journal 24 (2014), 509-553.
• Christian Helmers & Luke McDonagh, 'Patent litigation in England and Wales and the issue-based approach to costs,' Civil Justice Quarterly 32(3) (2013), 369-384.
• Luke McDonagh, 'Is Creative use of Musical Works without a licence acceptable under Copyright?' International Review of Intellectual Property and Competition Law (IIC) 4 (2012), 401-426.
• Luke McDonagh, 'Rearranging the Roles of the Performer and the Composer in the Music Industry – the Potential Significance of Fisher v Brooker,' Intellectual Property Quarterly 1 (2012), 64-76.
• Luke McDonagh, ‘Headlines and hyperlinks: UK copyright law post-Infopaq,’ Queen Mary Journal of Intellectual Property 1 (2) (2011), 184–187.

2019-20 – Awarded £37,000 by the ESRC as Co-Investigator of City, University of London’s project: TRILATTRADE - UK-EU-Japan Trade Relations: Modelling Trade, Regulaton & IP.

2019-20 - Awarded £10,000 by the U.K. FCO/British Embassy as Primary Investigator of City, University of London’s successful grant bid to conduct UK-Cuba research on creative industries and copyright law.

2018-19 – Awarded £17,500 as Primary Investigator of City, University of London’s successful UK Global Challenges Research Fund block grant bid to conduct research on patents and university innovation in the UK, Mexico and Cuba.

2017-20 – Awarded €100,000 as Co-Investigator of an EU Horizon2020 project on Robotics and IP Law: Inclusive Robotics for a Better Society (INBOTS).

2015-16 – Awarded £5,010 as Primary Investigator from The Modern Law Review and £500 from UK CLA to organise the 2016 MLR Seminar at City Law School on Dominion constitutionalism.

2013-2014 – Awarded tender of £17,000 as Primary Investigator by the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) to conduct empirical research concerning the Unitary Patent Court.

2012-2013 – Awarded funding totalling £58,000 as Primary Investigator by the UK Intellectual Property Office to research IP litigation at the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court.