Accessory makers Dbrand have taken their Steam Machine Companion Cube case off sale, admitting they never actually sought permission from Valve to make it.
The issue isn’t making a 3rd-party case for Valve’s hardware, it’s making that case resemble an object whose image was created by and is owned by Valve. the fact that Valve both makes the hardware and owns the image is coincidental
you can make an iPhone case without any issues from Apple, but you can’t make an iPhone case with images of Disney characters on it without permission from Disney
They can make a case, but they can’t make a case that profits off of property and designs that are owned by valve, which the companion cube is. The normal process would be to reach out to valve and request a license to produce it. Dbrand didn’t do that, and valve told them to stop.
Whether you agree with IP laws or not, this is how the laws currently function and dbrand has to know that. So this was a really stupid blunder for them to make.
This is the 2nd time they have done this in 5 years. First was ps5 cases in 2021. They changed the design enough to invalidate ip theft and relaunched.
I didn’t realize you had to get permission to make cases, so all those third party iphone cases have to have an agreement with apple?
The issue isn’t making a 3rd-party case for Valve’s hardware, it’s making that case resemble an object whose image was created by and is owned by Valve. the fact that Valve both makes the hardware and owns the image is coincidental
you can make an iPhone case without any issues from Apple, but you can’t make an iPhone case with images of Disney characters on it without permission from Disney
Yes, if they sport an Apple logo or any other IP not properly licensed.
The exterior dimensions of a smartphone are not IP.
I see, it’s over the art not the dimensions, thanks for explaining!
They can make a case, but they can’t make a case that profits off of property and designs that are owned by valve, which the companion cube is. The normal process would be to reach out to valve and request a license to produce it. Dbrand didn’t do that, and valve told them to stop.
Whether you agree with IP laws or not, this is how the laws currently function and dbrand has to know that. So this was a really stupid blunder for them to make.
This is the 2nd time they have done this in 5 years. First was ps5 cases in 2021. They changed the design enough to invalidate ip theft and relaunched.
They absolutely know what they are doing.
It’s not the case that’s the problem, it’s the trademarked IP.