Can Patents Deter Innovation? The Anticommons in Biomedical Research

1998/05/01 by Michael Heller, Rebecca S. Eisenberg · 3 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Intellectual Property and Patents #Pharmaceutical Economics and Policy #Innovation Policy and R&D

paper · doi:10.1126/science.280.5364.698

openalex publication_date 1998/05/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04

Abstract

The "tragedy of the commons" metaphor helps explain why people overuse shared resources. However, the recent proliferation of intellectual property rights in biomedical research suggests a different tragedy, an "anticommons" in which people underuse scarce resources because too many owners can block each other. Privatization of biomedical research must be more carefully deployed to sustain both upstream research and downstream product development. Otherwise, more intellectual property rights may lead paradoxically to fewer useful products for improving human health.

Citations

• On the Complex Economics of Patent Scope
• Advances in prospect theory: Cumulative representation of uncertainty
• Appropriating the Returns from Industrial Research and Development
• The Tragedy of the Commons

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• Patent [wikipedia]