[starkfist]

Agreed. They certainly aren't terrible if you own the patent. Great companies like Intellectual Ventures simply could not exist without them. Software patents open up a lot of innovative business models without the need to spend all the boring time and effort building stuff.

[derwiki]

To be fair, Loopt does seem to be one of the pioneers in location sharing. And they have built a product. IV, on the other hand..