In the past decade, personalized medicine has emerged as one of the most promising areas of medical research. It holds great potential for improving patient outcomes and reducing human suffering as well as driving down health care costs.

But innovation needs to be nurtured. In the U.S., the primary mechanism to incentivize innovation is the patent process. The Constitution states that Congress shall have the power to “promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited times to authors and investors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries.”

However, concerns have surfaced that the system is out of balance and impeding rather than advancing technological progress. Where there is no protection of rights, there is very little incentive to innovate, often described as the tragedy of the commons. But it is also true that innovation suffers where there are numerous rights holders – a phenomenon coined by Michael Heller as the tragedy of the anti-commons.

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