I’m not sure I understand. Dbrand made a steam machine skin that looks like a companion cube from portal. Valve made the portal games, and thus owns the rights to the companion cube. So valve can make a companion cube skin because they already own the rights to it. Dbrand cannot because they didn’t license it with valve.

Valve made the portal games. So they own the rights to the companion cube and can absolutely make this. That is why they sent the cease and desist order to dbrand.