Dbrand, a device skin company popular for trolling competitors such as Sony and Nintendo, filed a legal challenge against Casetify, accusing the latter of ripping off its Teardown designs.
The skins and cases in question are made to look like the inside of whatever phone, tablet, or laptop that they were purchased for. Dbrand first revealed its Teardown products in 2019 in partnership with JerryRigEverything.
Dbrand Sues Casetify
The latter is a YouTuber who breaks down new devices and sometimes gives them transparent mods. The Teardown skins and cases make the device look like it was taken entirely apart and slapped on a transparent backing. But in reality, it's only a vinyl decal or a case slot the device is put into.
While it is a relatively easy task to put a decal on the back of your phone, a lot of effort still goes into creating the designs. As per The Verge, Dbrand carefully disassembles the devices for which it wants to make a Teardown case.
These include popular devices such as an iPhone 15, iPhone 14, Google Pixel 8, MacBook Pro, or a Galaxy Z Flip 5. The company then scans the devices' internals using a commercial-grade machine and puts the images into editing software.
Using the software, Dbrand makes numerous changes, such as removing screws, ribbon cables, and wires. This process includes shifting some components around to ensure the design fits on the back of the phone, laptop, or tablet before making prints.
Dbrand alleges that Casetify used all this work on its own phone cases. The controversy began when the latter launched a similar line of phone cases known as Inside Parts. They also put an image of the components inside people's phones on the outside.
Casetify's version of the device skins allegedly has a poor masked version of a label found on Teardown products that features Zack Nelson's, the YouTube behind JerryRigEverything, the signature phrase "glass is glass, and glass breaks," according to Engadget.
Stealing Skin Designs
He took the matter further by saying that the print quality of Casetify's cases was "extraordinarily subpar." Dbrand's logo even appears on a Casetify skin. Nelson put out a video where he said that he first learned of the issue after a user on X, formerly known as Twitter, claimed that Casetify was selling a "transparent" case for a Samsung phone.
In the suit, Dbrand said that Casetify infringed upon its copyrighted works with 45 Inside Out products. It now asks for unspecified punitive and exemplary damages, among other things.
Dbrand made a series of tweets that placed Casetify's designs beside its own and showed the parallels between what was listed on the latter's site and what was on the phone case they were selling, said Dexerto.
Exhibit A: The phrase “GLASS IS GLASS AND GLASS BREAKS”.
— dbrand (@dbrand) November 23, 2023
This is a catch-phrase coined by Teardown co-creator @ZacksJerryRig. This tagline does not exist on the internal hardware of any smartphone, yet somehow appears on @Casetify’s products. (2/6) pic.twitter.com/UpB2u5zg3M
One of the pieces of evidence that Dbrand revealed was the number 11, which was supposed to reference its founding date of Nov. 11, 2011. It was supposedly seen in Casetify's skins despite not appearing on the ribbon cable of any device.
