Type-safe copy interface

[BioPhysEngr]

Hi,

I am trying to implement an interface in C# that requires implementing classes to return a copy of themselves in a type-safe manner (i.e. returning the implementing class' own type, NOT an IExample type). I google'd around a bit, but did not find a satisfactory design pattern. The solution I hacked together was (abstracting everything possible away):

public interface IExampleCore
{
    bool exampleCommonMethod();
    bool anotherExample();
    IExampleCore deepCopyCore();
}

public interface IExample<T> : IExampleCore where T : IExample<T>
{
    T deepCopy();
}

And finally implementing an object like:

public class ExampleClass : IExample<ExampleClass>
{
    public bool exampleCommonMethod() { ... }
    public bool anotherExample() { ... }
    public ExampleClass deepCopy() { ... }
    public IExampleCore deepCopyCore() { return this.deepCopy(); }
}

This seems to compile OK, but it seems like a long way to go to implement a type safe deep copy. I am particularly concerned about the where directive wherein T is used in the constraint. This seems circular, however logical it seems in my mind. Is this appropriate? Is there a better way?

Note I do also want to support a non-type safe call to anything implemeting IExampleCore (or IExample<T>, by extension) that returns merely an IExampleCore (hence the deepCopyCore() method) in addition to the type-safe deepCopy().

Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks.