Based on the conflicting statements the interns wrote, this is how I would put it:
"Thanks for all your help help, Mentor. We'll be off! [And we're taking your designs with us!]"
"Sure thing kids, go crazy. Do whatever you want! [I don't know that you're taking any of my designs to create competing products.] Good luck! You'll need it [because you don't have any designs and it will take you a while to come up with good ones]!"
Kids post to kickstarter using their mentor's proprietary designs, and get tons of funding to make products based on their mentor's designs.
Mentor sees them stealing the designs he spent months/years working on and sues.
A admittedly cursory look at both websites doesn't show any obvious copying (unless there is some sort if internal structural magic you can't see in pictures). Besides, the article only mentioned things like the website navigation and promo pictures. Not product infringement. Although as others have mentioned, we are only getting one side of the story.
"Thanks for all your help help, Mentor. We'll be off! [And we're taking your designs with us!]"
"Sure thing kids, go crazy. Do whatever you want! [I don't know that you're taking any of my designs to create competing products.] Good luck! You'll need it [because you don't have any designs and it will take you a while to come up with good ones]!"
Kids post to kickstarter using their mentor's proprietary designs, and get tons of funding to make products based on their mentor's designs.
Mentor sees them stealing the designs he spent months/years working on and sues.