Apologies, I misread the code the first time.

You are only posting a partial code example, and your statements about
what will work and what won't are not in line with anything else I've
seen when working with ICloneable.

Below is a short but concise example that demonstrates both methods work
just fine.

This begs the question though, how are you determining whether or not
you're actually using the same reference?

Chris.

class ClassA : ICloneable
{
    public string name;

    public ClassA()
    {
        name = "ClassA";
    }

    public object Clone()
    {
        ClassA ret = null;
        ret = (ClassA)this.MemberwiseClone();
        return ret;
    }
}

class ClassB : ICloneable
{
    public string name;

    public ClassB()
    {
        name = "ClassB";
    }

    public object Clone()
    {
        ClassB ret = new ClassB();
        ret.name = this.name;
        return ret;
    }
}

class General
{
    [STAThread]
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        ClassA a1 = new ClassA();
        a1.name = "The first ClassA";

        ClassA a2 = (ClassA)a1.Clone();
        a2.name = "The second ClassA";

        MessageBox.Show(a1.name + "\n" + a2.name);

        ClassB b1 = new ClassB();
        b1.name = "The first ClassB";

        ClassB b2 = (ClassB)b1.Clone();
        b2.name = "The second ClassB";

        MessageBox.Show(b1.name + "\n" + b2.name);
    }
}