Upper Deck Suing Ravensburger Over Disney Lorcana
Two of tabletop gaming's most well-known companies seem to be headed to court, as Upper Deck has announced they are suing Ravensburger and a previous Upper Deck game designer regarding the core mechanics of Disney Lorcana. Upper Deck alleges that former designer Ryan Miller copied Upper Deck's original game, and then alleges that Ravensburger repackaged and marketed that game as Disney Lorcana. The official complaint states that Miller worked with Upper Deck on a game called Rush of Ikorr, and after a year and a half left the project to work with Ravensburger. Upper Deck alleges that his work product on Rush of Ikorr was transported to Lorcana, and you can find more details on the complaint below.
In a statement, Upper Deck President Jason Masherah said "We invested significant time and resources to develop a new and novel trading card game. Our current leadership values the importance of protecting intellectual property of both Upper Deck and its licensors.
"We want gamers and fans to continue enjoying and having access to unique, innovative and immersive trading card games," Masherah said. "We encourage competition in the industry, but also strongly believe in playing by the rules to ensure the gaming community benefits from the different creative choices by each manufacturer." You can find the Complaint Introduction and more details on the suit below.
INTRODUCTION: 1. Upper Deck seeks to protect its intellectual property from premeditated theft by Miller. On a work for hire basis, Upper Deck engaged Miller as lead game designer to develop a major proprietary trading card game for Upper Deck called "Rush of Ikorr." After over a year of developing Rush of Ikorr alongside Upper Deck, Miller terminated his contract with Upper Deck
and, either before termination or just after, began working for Defendant Ravensburger, a direct competitor.
At Ravensburger, Miller transported his work product on Rush of Ikorr, knowing such work product was owned solely by Upper Deck, into a trading card game called "Disney Lorcana" ("Lorcana"). This trading card has remarkable, uncanny similarities to Upper Deck's Rush of Ikorr.
2. Miller's acts in pilfering the game design Upper Deck paid him to create and using those designs to develop a competing trading card game for a competitor were aided and encouraged by Ravensburger, who now seeks to profit from the stolen intellectual property. These acts give rise to a host of causes of action under California and federal law.
Later in the complaint, Upper Deck reveals a timeline of events that it believes supports its position, citing that despite Miller's departure they continued to work on Rush of Ikorr, a game that had not been publicly announced yet, and when Lorcana's rules were revealed, they noticed the games were nearly identical. It also goes on to reveal the basic rules for Ikorr in the complaint.
We'll keep you posted with more details as they become available.
