Intellectual Property laws in America allow businesses control over IP which allows them to focus on their business directly and helps to ensure their success won't be immediately undermined by copycat competition. This is a valuable process and encourages innovation and business development. But it is not an ON/OFF switch. It is a system that can be fine tuned for the greatest benefit of society.
I argue that the duration for which IP can be owned is too long and by protecting IP indefinitely we are robbing ourselves of opportunity. A hard limit of 25 years on IP would allow businesses and individuals to profit from their innovation for a significant time - and they could continue to profit - but giving that IP to the public domain would allow derivative work and create MANY jobs.