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Clean room design (also known as the Chinese wall technique) is the method of copying a design by reverse engineering and then recreating it without infringing any of the copyrights and trade secrets associated with the original design. Clean room design is useful as a defense against copyright and trade secret infringement because it relies on independent invention. However, because independent invention is not a defense against patents, clean room designs typically cannot be used to circumvent patent restrictions. Integrated circuit of Atmel Diopsis 740 System on Chip showing memory blocks, logic and input/output pads around the periphery Microchips with a transparent window, showing the integrated circuit inside. ...
In manufacturing, a clean room is an enclosed area protected against dust that might interfere with the manufacturing process. ...
The Cleanroom Software Engineering process is a software development process intended to produce software with a certifiable level of reliability. ...
In business, Chinese Walls are information barriers implemented within firms to seperate and isolate persons who make investment decisions from persons who are privy to undisclosed material information which may influence those decisions. ...
Reverse engineering (RE) is the process of taking something (a device, an electrical component, a software program, etc. ...
Not to be confused with copywriting. ...
A trade secret is a formula, practice, process, design, instrument, pattern, or compilation of information used by a business to obtain an advantage over competitors within the same industry or profession. ...
For other uses, see Patent (disambiguation). ...
The term implies that the design team works in an environment that is 'clean', or demonstrably uncontaminated by any knowledge of the proprietary techniques used by the competitor.
Typically, a clean room design is done by having someone examine the system to be reimplemented and having this person write a specification. This specification is then reviewed by a lawyer to ensure that no copyrighted material is included. The specification is then implemented by a team with no connection to the original examiners.
Examples
A famous example is that of Columbia Data Products who built the first clone of an IBM computer through a clean room implementation of its BIOS. Another is VTech's successful clones of the Apple II ROMs for the Laser 128, the only computer model, among dozens of Apple II compatibles, which survived litigation brought by Apple Computer. Columbia Data Products (CDP) introduced the MPC 1600 Multi Personal Computer in June 1982. ...
The Columbia MPC was one of the many IBM PC compatibles offered on the US market. ...
For other uses, see Bios. ...
Video Technology Ltd. ...
The Apple II was one of the most popular personal computers of the 1980s. ...
Read-only memory (usually known by its acronym, ROM) is a class of storage media used in computers and other electronic devices. ...
The Laser 128 was a clone of the Apple II series of personal computers, first released by VTech in 1984. ...
A lawsuit is a civil action brought before a court in order to recover a right, obtain damages for an injury, obtain an injunction to prevent an injury, or obtain a declaratory judgment to prevent future legal disputes. ...
Apple Inc. ...
Case law Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc. v. Connectix Corporation was a 1999 lawsuit which established an important precedent in regard to reverse engineering. Sony sought damages for copyright infringement over Connectix's Virtual Game Station emulator, alleging that its proprietary BIOS code had been copied into Connectix's product without permission. Sony won the initial judgment, but the ruling was overturned on appeal. Sony eventually purchased the rights to Virtual Game Station to prevent its further sale and development. This established a precedent addressing the legal implications of commercial reverse engineering efforts. In law, a precedent or authority is a legal case establishing a principle or rule that a court may need to adopt when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. ...
Sony Corporation ) is a Japanese multinational corporation and one of the worlds largest media conglomerates with revenue of $66. ...
The Cathach of St. ...
Connectix Corporation was a software and hardware company, noted for having released innovative products that were either made obsolete as Apple incorporated the ideas into system software, or were sold to other companies once they become popular. ...
The Virtual Game Station (VGS) is an emulator by Connectix that allows Sony PlayStation games to be played on a computer. ...
During production, Connectix unsuccessfully attempted a Chinese wall approach to reverse engineer the BIOS, so its engineers disassembled the object code directly. Connectix's successful appeal maintained that the direct disassembly and observation of proprietary code was necessary because there was no other way to determine its behavior. From the ruling: In business, Chinese Walls are information barriers implemented within firms to seperate and isolate persons who make investment decisions from persons who are privy to undisclosed material information which may influence those decisions. ...
Reverse engineering (RE) is the process of taking something (a device, an electrical component, a software program, etc. ...
A disassembler is a computer program that translates machine language into assembly language — the inverse operation to that of an assembler. ...
In computer science, object file or object code is an intermediate representation of code generated by a compiler after it processes a source code file. ...
Some works are closer to the core of intended copyright protection than others. Sony's BIOS lay at a distance from the core because it contains unprotected aspects that cannot be examined without copying. The court of appeal therefore accorded it a lower degree of protection than more traditional literary works.
References - United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (2000). Sony Computer Entertainment, Inc.; Sony Computer Entertainment America, Inc. v. Connectix Corporation, 203 F.3d 596 (9th Cir. 2000). Accessed online on August 29, 2006. [1]
- Computerworld article on clean room design
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