Incidence bound from two-point multiplicity ($I\le m+\sqrt{\lambda mn(n-1)}$)

If $n$ points and $m$ curves have the property that each pair of distinct points lies on at most $\lambda$ curves, then double counting gives ${\sum }_{\gamma }{k}_{\gamma }(k_{\gamma }-1)\le \lambda n(n-1)$, where $k_{\gamma }=|P\cap \gamma |$. The Cauchy-Schwarz inequality implies $I^2\le mI+\lambda mn(n-1)$ and hence $I\le m+\sqrt{\lambda mn(n-1)}$. The statement needs only this combinatorial multiplicity condition, not algebraicity.