Legal Definitions - clean room

Definition: Clean room is a method of developing new technology or proprietary material in an isolated environment to ensure that the work is authentic and not copied. This technique is used to provide evidence that similarities to others works is because of legitimate reasons and not copying.

In the context of intellectual property, clean room technique means to develop new technology in a room from which all trade secrets, other licensed know-how, or copyrighted material have been excluded. This ensures that the technology is independently developed and is not subject to any infringement claims.

In the context of manufacturing products, clean room is a controlled environment where contaminants such as dust or bacteria are filtered out to provide the cleanest possible environment for manufacturing products such as pharmaceuticals and medical equipment.

Examples:

• A software development team uses the clean room technique to develop a new program. They work in an isolated environment where they have no access to any existing code or software. This ensures that their work is original and not copied from any existing program.
• A pharmaceutical company uses a clean room to manufacture drugs. The room is designed to filter out any contaminants that could affect the quality of the drugs. This ensures that the drugs are safe and effective for patients.

The examples illustrate how the clean room technique is used to ensure that work is original and not copied. In the software development example, the team works in an isolated environment to ensure that their work is not influenced by any existing code or software. In the pharmaceutical example, the clean room is used to ensure that the drugs are manufactured in the cleanest possible environment to ensure their safety and effectiveness.