The "clean room" in "clean room reverse engineering" refers to a particular set of trade secrets, yes. You could have a clean room and still infringe if an empl

The "clean room" in "clean room reverse engineering" refers to a particular set of trade secrets, yes. You could have a clean room and still infringe if an employee in the room copied any work they had ever seen. The clean room has to do with licenses and trade secrets, not copyright.