II. INNOVATION-ENHANCING AND INNOVATION-INHIBITING EFFECTS OF PATENTS IN NORMAL SCIENCE...................................................... 669 A. Traditional Justifications for Patent Law .................................... 669 B. Rebuttals to Traditional Patent Theory: Scientific Communism and the Tragedy of the Anticommons ...... 671 1. Norms of Communal Sharing and Implications for Paten...

Augustin Cournot's original concept of "complementary oligopoly" has recently had a rebirth of interest after being relabeled "the tragedy of the anticommons" and finding fresh applications in the legal and economics literatures. The tragedy of the anticommons (the mirror image of the more well-known tragedy of the commons) occurs when too many rights holders to a good lead to sub-optimal usage...