Tragedy of the anticommons

The tragedy of the anticommons is a new phrase invention of Michael Heller. It says, that things can go bad if too many people have rights on a shared thing. It is related to the phrase tragedy of the commons, which says that things can go bad if not enough people have rights. It is a general phrase for problems like patent thickets, submarine patents, nail houses, and more red tapes. It is difficult to find solutions, but some of them are eminent domain, Laches, patent pools or other agreements on rights and copyrights.
Related pages
 Georgism
 Market failure
 Tragedy of the commons
Tragedy of the anticommons is one of four outcomes:
  Property rights Common ownership or lack of property rights Bad outcome/tragedy Tragedy of the anticommons Tragedy of the commons Good outcome/cornucopia normal case Inverse commons

The prevalent outcome depends on the details of the situation.

References

Rose, Carol M. (1986) The Comedy of the Commons: Commerce, Custom and Inherently Public Property, 53 Univ. of Chi. L. Rev. 711, reprinted as chapter 5  in: Rose, Carol M., Property and persuasion: Essays on the history, theory and rhetoric of ownership, Westview Press 1994

 Other websites 
 The Tragedy of the Anticommons (Abstract, with link to complete paper)
 Can Patents Deter Innovation?  The Anticommons in Biomedical Research (full text of article)
 The comedy of the commons, speech by Lawrence Lessig  (Lawrence Lessig)
 Heller's talk in the Authors@Google series
 Website complementing gridlock economy: How Too Much Ownership Wrecks Markets, Stops Innovation, and Costs Lives 

Category:Property