Popular YouTuber Zack Nelson — he of JerryRigEverythng — has launched a lawsuit with dbrand, which accuses Casetify of copying their case designs.
Nelson recently posted a video alleging that Hong Kong-based Casetify has been copying his and dbrand’s Teardown cases, which feature an image of a product’s interior in astonishing detail.
Each case takes a huge amount of time to create, and for fun, Nelson and dbrand like to add a few Easter eggs to each one.
It’s these Easter eggs that led Nelson to believe that Casetify has been copying the dbrand cases, as some of them also appear on Casetify’s new Inside Out cases for the same devices.
For example, dbrand’s Teardown case for the Samsung S23 Ultra includes the words, “Glass is glass and glass breaks.” This is a phrase that Nelson likes to use in his videos, and, as the YouTuber points out, is hardly going to be added by Samsung itself.
But the words also appeared on Casetify’s Inside Out case for the S23 Ultra.
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/UpB2u5zg3M
— dbrand (@dbrand) November 23, 2023
Nelson goes on to highlight other Easter eggs or unique details on dbrand’s cases that also appear on Casetify’s Inside Out lineup, including, incredibly, something that looks remarkably similar to dbrand’s logo.
“It takes a lot of work to make a Teardown skin,” Nelson says in his video. “So I think you can see why we are a little upset that a massive company, who by their own CEO’s admission is worth close to a billion dollars, might’ve just swooped in and copied 10,00 hours’ worth of work.”
Nelson said he and dbrand recently launched a federal lawsuit against Casetify accusing the company of copyright infringement.
Responding on X — formerly known as Twitter — Casetify claimed that it’s “always been a bastion of originality, and we hold pride in that. It added: “We are currently investigating a copyright allegation against us. We have immediately removed the designs in question from all platforms.”
Digital Trends has contacted Casetify for additional comment on the matter and we will update this article when we hear back.
