Haha nope! No cheating here.
Don't know if that makes a difference - I am running 9.0f2 with the update for IE.
And if it helps, here are the exact steps I do:
Start on Layers Tab with a Icon Template selected
Double click the Select Tool to put a marquee around the icon preview
Hit Ctrl + C for the copy shortcut
Click in the User Layers control
Hit Ctrl + V to paste
The new layer will have the tag Clipboard
It works if User Layers exist of there are no User Layers, with Icon Text or without.
Let me know how you go.
Cheers
-JG