Zeroization

Compulsory licensing refers to a situation where a party is legally required to grant license over (intellectual) property to another party. While this notion is generally absent from United States Patent Law, it does exist in other countries. For example, the Patently-O blow points to the compulsory license clauses in French and German Patent Law.

The Patent Prospector blog has an excellent overview of the economics of the patent system. Chief among these are the notion of monopoly power. Patents essentially grant inventors a limited monopoly on intellectual property.