Nanotechnology has garnered headlines and billions of dollars of federal investment because of its potentially broad effects on all parts of commerce.

"My main concern is that Fidnet is an ill-defined monitoring system of potentially broad sweep," he said.

"But my understanding is that some plans are potentially broad based but in application are far more narrowly focused."

The article described the LinkShare patent as a technique for doing business, a claim with potentially broad implications, rather than a narrow technological innovation.

Although only a handful of other states have similar provisions, the impact of the decision today is potentially broad.

Fundamental tax reform is a big idea with potentially broad appeal: millions of people view the existing tax code as unwieldy and inequitable.

The case has potentially broad implications for employee pension and benefit plans.

Mr. Thomas said that Carnivore had potentially broad capabilities and that he understood the concerns of privacy groups.

In addressing the potentially broad cultural impact of their relationship, Davis quoted Jamey Giddens, the editorial director for Daytime Confidential:

But Google is the clear leader, among competitors like Overture and Kanoodle, in a modest-seeming innovation with potentially broad implications.