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.

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..

thinking a system sucks doesn't preclude taking opportunities that system presents you.