Dbrand, a company that makes gadget skins, sued competitor Casetify last week in a Canadian court over a set of stolen skin designs. The brand is seeking multi-million dollars in damages as part of the lawsuit.
In a series of posts on X, Dbrand described how Casteify allegedly copied elements from a series of accessory lines called “Teardown” which Dbrand created with YouTuber Zack Nelson aka JerryRigEverything in 2019. JerryRigEverything is famous for testing the durability of devices while looking into their internal structures as well. Dbrand & Nelson claimed that they found easter eggs included with their own design on Casteify’s products.
Casetify stole our products. Now we’re suing them.
Here’s how we found out… (1/6)
— dbrand (@dbrand) November 23, 2023
In a video created by Nelson, he points out that Casetify allegedly also rearranged parts of Dbrand’s MacBook skin to launch its own version under the “Inside Out” line of products.
In response, Casetify put out a statement on X saying that it is investigating the copyright allegation against the company. Plus, it has removed all contentious designs from its website. Separately, the company said it is also looking into a DDoS attack that disrupted its website operations when Dbrand made the case public.
Additionally, Dbrand alleged that Casetify also copied phone case designs from the scans performed by repairing guide site iFixit. While iFixit, posted a snarky comment to Casetify on X, it’s not clear if the company plans to take any legal action. We have asked iFixit for a comment.
Dear @Casetify, using stolen X-rays of phone internals doesn’t make you a tech genius; it makes you a copycat. How about investing some of those “cutting-edge” profits into supporting Right to Repair or wheelchair advocacy? Or is that too original for you? https://t.co/q4RiteEKbf
— iFixit (@iFixit) November 24, 2023
In the filing, Dbrand has accused Casetify of hosting 117 products until at least November 9 that were infringing copyrights.
Incidentally, as The Verge pointed out, Nelson also launched a new collaboration of X-Ray skins with Dbrand in a video about the lawsuit.
Source: techcrunch.com