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 Casetify 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 and Nelson claimed that they found Easter eggs included with their own design on Casetify’s products.
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. The company said that it’s looking at the situation closely and “reserving our options while we look into how the situation has impacted our business.”
In the filing, Dbrand has accused Casetify of hosting 117 products until at least November 9 that were infringing copyrights.
“If Casetify had independently created a Teardown-style design from scratch, there would be no problem. Nobody at Dbrand is under the illusion that we originated the concept of taking apart phones, scanning them at a high DPI, then making accessories from the polished result. The fact of the matter is that Casetify copied, re-composited, and then pasted our body of work into their products, all while going to great lengths to conceal the unauthorized nature of their infringement,” Dbrand’s CEO Adam Ijaz told TechCrunch in a statement.
Incidentally, as The Verge pointed out, Nelson also launched a new collaboration of X-Ray skins with Dbrand in a video about the lawsuit.
Update November 28, 6:30 AM ET: The story has been updated with inputs from iFixit and a statement from Dbrand