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Changing your domain name will have a large impact on your rankings, and it could easily take a year to return to the same level of present traffic. The main issues are
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1. Age of domain name
2. Links pointing to your site
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Search engines are now using the registration date of your domain name as one ranking factor. Names registered longer have a greater weight (the logic behind this is you are an established company, not a spammer looking to make some quick sales)

My opinion is that if this is a very important business change, you should do it. You eventually will get your full rankings back. It will require some re-working however.

I answered a related question previously here
http://ask-marketing-experts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=178

Some info on google patent applications
http://www.buzzle.com/editorials/6-10-2005-71368.asp