IDEA patent

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.