Cleanroom Technique

DEFINITION: The clean room technique is a process in which a new product is developed by reverse engineering an existing product, and then the new product is designed in such a way that patent or copyright infringement is avoided. The clean room technique is also known as clean room design. (Sometimes the words "clean room" are merged into the single word, "cleanroom.") Sometimes this process is called the Chinese  … 
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CLEANROOM TECHNIQUE DEFINITION (continued): …  wall method, because the intent is to place a demonstrable intellectual barrier between the reverse engineering process and the development of the new product. The use of the clean room technique can be compared, in some respects, with the fair use of copyrighted publications in order to compile a new document. For example, a new book about Linux can be authored on the basis of information obtained by researching existing books, articles, white papers, and Web sites. This does not necessarily constitute copyright infringement, even though other books on Linux already exist, and even if the new … 
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