IDEA patent

[nobody@cypherpunks.ca (John Anonymous MacDonald)]

IDEA is a good algorithm much faster than 3DES and
probably stronger but its not very popular outside
of PGP because it is patented.

I remember someone posting here or in another
crypto list about a modified keyschedual to allow
keys of weird size.

My question is could this modification or
something more proven like PRNG-generated subkeys
be used to avoid the IDEA patent? Everyone says it
only takes a small change to avoid a patent. The
problem is a small change can break an algorithm.
Some algorithms like Blowfish generate subkeys
from a PRNG so it might be a safe change for IDEA.

I'm posting this anonymously because I dont know
what peoples feelings are on patent avoidance.