anticommons means the reverse of a commons; a situation in which a resource is subject to fragmented rights, whereby potential users can exclude one another. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 87 out of 100.
Why “anticommons” is a great word
ANTICOMMONS — [Noun] A situation in which fragmented ownership rights allow multiple holders to block each other’s use, resulting in systematic underuse. Coined by Michael Heller, modeled on the phrase 'tragedy of the commons' (itself coined by Garrett Hardin), with the prefix anti- ("opposite, against") + commons ("shared resource"). Unlike a "commons" (which invites overuse through unfettered access) or a "monopoly" (which centralizes control for exclusive use), an anticommons paralyzes through a proliferation of vetoes. It is the vacant lot frozen by a dozen disputed deeds, the life-saving drug stalled in a thicket of patents, or the archive whose fragments are jealously guarded in separate rooms—a testament to how the very mechanisms designed to prevent loss can ensure a different kind of waste: the tragedy of absence.
noun
- The reverse of a commons; a situation in which a resource is subject to fragmented rights, whereby potential users can exclude one another.“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.”