Dbrand says Casetify ripped off its X-ray skins and now there's a lawsuit

(Image credit: Dbrand/Casetify)

You don't need to spend your days knee-deep in tech to know that Dbrand has been around for a long time, producing skins for just about everything from the iPhone 15 to the Nintendo Switch and a whole lot more.

You also don't need to be an accessory aficionado to know that Casetify is a company that has been making pretty cool phone cases for years, and we've covered many of them here at iMore. Both companies have made some popular products.

So it was all the more surprising when Dbrand took to its X account to say that Casetify "stole our products" before adding "we're suing them." As you can probably imagine, the internet blew up. Eventually, Casetify responded with an X post of its own. But did it do enough?

A delayed reaction

First, the accusation. Dbrand says that Casetify copied its products that are based on X-ray images of devices that effectively make it look like they're transparent when applied. Imagine an X-ray of an iPhone 15 Pro in skin form, stuck to the back of your phone. Pretty cool, right?

It appears that Casetify agreed with Dbrand accusing it of copying its work. How does Dbrand come to that conclusion? Because Casetify's own X-ray-themed cases have the same Easter eggs included.

As an example, the Dbrand products were created in collaboration with YouTuber JerryRigEverything (Zack Nelson) and one includes a phrase of his that reads "Glass is glass and glass breaks." Sure enough, that same phrase appeared on cases produced by Casetify as shown in Dbrand's breakdown of what's going on below.

Exhibit A: The phrase “GLASS IS GLASS AND GLASS BREAKS”.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/UpB2u5zg3MNovember 23, 2023

Shortly after Dbrand broke its news the Casetify website went offline. Why that happened wasn't clear, but the case-maker was oddly quiet throughout. Then, almost a day later, Casetify responded by saying that it was investigating a DDoS attack that took its site offline. And as for the accusations, the company's looking into it.

"CASETiFY has always been a bastion of originality, and we hold pride in that," the statement says. "We are currently investigating a copyright allegation against us. We have immediately removed the designs in question from all platforms."

The statement ends by thanking people for their support "during this challenging time," which seems like an odd turn of phrase when you're the accused party.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.