Tragedy of the anticommons

The tragedy of the anticommons is a type of coordination breakdown, in which a commons does not emerge, even when general access to resources or infrastructure would be a social good.

It is a mirror-image of the older concept of tragedy of the commons, in which numerous rights holders' combined use exceeds the capacity of a resource and depletes or destroys it.

Overcoming these breakdowns can be difficult, but there are assorted means, including eminent domain, laches, patent pools, or other licensing organizations.

[3] Repeated attempts by the Holy Roman Empire, including several over the centuries by the Emperor, to regulate toll collection on the Rhine failed.

Heller and Rebecca S. Eisenberg are academic law professors who believe that biological patents create a "tragedy of the anticommons", "in which people underuse scarce resources because too many owners can block each other.

The ongoing legal battles between Apple Inc. and Samsung can be viewed as an example of the tragedy of the anticommons, specifically in intellectual property rights.

[17] A patent dispute, in the sense of the tragedy of the anticommons, may have slowed down the production process, and limited the technology available, to competing firms.