Patents, licensing, and copyright are all needed, for some of the similar reasons why Communism and Capitalism will never work as pure systems.

But it's their duration and style of enforcement that are problematic. It doesn't necessarily make the idea of them bad. It's just a shame that companies are more then happy to abuse the power of patents, licensing, and copyright, instead of standing up and fighting it when those powers are being abused.

And that is why people jump to the far extreme of abolish them all. But in reality that would be just as problematic as a system that allows the abuse of patents, licensing, and copyright. A happy medium is needed, shame nobody ever sees that though due to greed.