Dbrand Sues Casetify for Copying Its Teardown Designs

Dbrand, known for its teasing approach towards brands like Sony and Nintendo, is now engaged in a legal battle of its own. The company is filing a lawsuit against Casetify, alleging that Casetify has unlawfully replicated Dbrand’s Teardown device skins and cases that mimic the internal components of phones, tablets, and laptops, with Dbrand also announcing new X-Ray skins alongside the lawsuit.

Dbrand introduced its Teardown products in 2019 in collaboration with JerryRigEverything (Zack Nelson), a YouTuber known for dissecting new devices and creating transparent mods. The Teardown skins and cases give the appearance of a device being disassembled with a transparent backing, while in reality, it’s just a vinyl decal or a case the phone is placed into.

Although adhering a decal to the back of a phone may seem simple, a significant amount of effort is involved in creating these designs. Dbrand meticulously disassembles the devices, such as iPhones, Google Pixels, MacBook Pros, and Galaxy Z Flip 5, scans their internals using commercial-grade equipment, and then edits the images to remove screws, cables, wires, and reposition components to fit the back of the phone, laptop, or tablet before printing.

Casetify is accused of unlawfully utilizing this work for its own phone cases. Following the public announcement of Dbrand’s lawsuit, Casetify removed the infringing case lineup from its website, maintaining that it has always prioritized originality.

The conflict began when Casetify launched the Inside Parts line of phone cases, featuring images of phone components on the exterior. However, discrepancies in the designs were noticed, with one user on X (formerly Twitter) pointing out that Casetify appeared to reuse the same internal image across various phone models, resulting in inaccurate representations of the devices.

Dbrand publicly addressed Casetify’s actions in a video, revealing how Casetify appeared to have recycled the same design for Apple, Samsung, and Google devices, accompanied by a mocking caption “iNsiDe PaRtS.” In response, Casetify released a new line of transparent-style phone cases known as Inside Out, which Dbrand claims was achieved through stealing its designs, while also attempting to modify the designs to appear different.

Dbrand presents substantial evidence supporting its allegations