Earlier this week, reputable protective skin maker, Dbrand, alleged that the Canadian smartphone case makerCasetify stole copyrighted Teardown skin designsfor its own products. Dbrand posted compelling evidence to X and filed a lawsuit along with Teardown’s co-creator Zack Nelson of the JerryRigEverything YouTube channel. After an entire day of silence, Casetify finally issues a public statement. Meanwhile, Dbrand harpooned the brand again, demonstrating how the brand may have also plagiarized iFixit’s X-ray skin design.
Dbrand makes skins and Grip cases for a wide range of devices, while Nelson creates videos testing the durability of various devices and taking them apart to give us a look at the inside. The Teardown skins were born out of this collaboration, with the team painstakingly scanning every device’s internals, cleaning it up, and adding artistic elements like Easter eggs. This way, the Teardown skins give you a look at the insides, without replacing the back panel with a transparent one.
Although the concept of see-through devices isn’t novel, Dbrand rival Casetify also created a similar product — the Inside Out protective cases. However, Dbrand and Nelson took to X (formerly Twitter) to point out several instances where Easter eggs from the original Teardown skins were present in Casetify’s designs. Some customers also found that Casetify’s designs weren’t even accurate representations of the device internals.
The accused brand took its time, but put out a statement on Twitter stating it has always been a proud “bastion of originality.” The brand added that all the designs in question were removed from all platforms. X users met the statement with ridicule, given the damning evidence of Dbrand’s copied Easter eggs. Moreover, X users found a few Casetify Inside Outproducts still listedon big retailers like Best Buy, contrary to the brand’s claim of having taken them down.
Casetify also said it is investigating a denial of service (DDOS) attack on its website coinciding with the time Dbrand leveled the allegations. However, one could say this is just the brand covering up for its website’s downtime while the disputed products were purged.
Amidst all this drama on X, Dbrand noted Casetify had also removed an iPhone case with an X-ray design. Upon further investigation, it appears the graphic was stolen from iFixit’s catalog and mirrored.iFixit is also well known for ripping into devicesto determine their repairability and offer kits for DIY repairs. Moreover, Casetify’s graphic isn’t even a scan of the iPhone’s internals. In its typical snarky fashion, Dbrand remarked that Casetify was probably trying to sweep this instance of plagiarism under the carpet.
Presently, it is unclear if iFixit will join the copyright suit Dbrand and Zack Nelson filed in Canadian federal court. The original plaintiffs are claiming millions of dollars in damages. Dbrand even joked that Casetify could go ahead and steal itsbrand-new range of X-ray skin designs, like it did iFixit’s. Nelson also took a final jab at the brand, saying the company shouldtry issuing the statement to the judge.
