Upper Deck lawsuit claiming Lorcana’s designer stole the game from them rumbles on in courts

Upper Deck‘s lawsuit claiming the designer of hit trading card game Disney Lorcana stole the design from them continues to plod its way through the courts, more than a year after the complaint was first lodged.

The publisher has accused Lorcana designer Ryan Miller of “premeditated theft”, claiming he took his work on Upper Deck’s previously unannounced game Rush of Ikorr with him when he left the company in 2020 – and transported it to his new employer Ravensburger to create Lorcana.

Upper Deck said in its latest court filing on September 17 that Lorcana has “remarkable, uncanny similarities” to Rush of Ikorr, and claims Miller was “aided and encouraged” by Ravensburger in stealing the designs.

The new filing comes 15 months after Upper Deck initially sued Miller and Ravensburger, with the case then shuttling between state and federal courts across the US following successful arguments from Ravensburger’s lawyers.

Several of Upper Deck’s claims have already survived motions to dismiss from Ravensburger, which is being represented by Brian Lewis, a veteran TCG law expert who was previously general counsel at Wizards of the Coast.

Upper Deck has amended several other claims following the motions to dismiss, and presented the updated accusations to the court again just over a week ago.

They include claims that Miller discussed potential employment with Ravensburger to work on a TCG while he working as lead game developer on Upper Deck’s Rush of Ikorr, and that he used Rush of Ikorr drafts and designs to facilitate his work on what would become Lorcana.

Upper Deck claims that by the time it learned of the specific details of Lorcana in 2023, it was too late to prevent the use of the Rush of Ikorr work materials in Ravensburger’s game.

The company added in the filing that if it had known Miller was discussing working with Ravensburger on a TCG while employed on Rush of Ikorr, it would have sought to make sure Miller destroyed any documents he possessed detailing the game.

It also claims Miller hid from Upper Deck his talks with Ravensburger, his reasons for leaving the company, and that he would be working on a “competing, identical game” for his new employer.

Ravensburger has until tomorrow to respond to those amended claims, either by making another motion to dismiss or by filing answers to those allegations.

Intellectual property lawyer Paul Lesko, who has been following the case and updating progress through his Twitter account, believes that whatever the outcome of tomorrow’s hearing, the case could begin to make some progress.

He wrote on Twitter, “HOPEFULLY, however, this time the case will actually go forward (with discovery, etc) while the parties fight over this motion to dismiss. Why? Well, because no matter what, some of [Upper Deck]’s claims will go forward… so the case will continue. So may as well start it!

“So… unless something funny happens… I think this case will finally start!”

A statement provided to BoardGameWire from Ravensburger North America senior communications director Lisa Krueger when the initial lawsuit was filed said, “We at Ravensburger stand behind the integrity of our team and the originality of our products.

“The baseless claims filed this week are entirely without merit, and we look forward to proving this in due time.”

Lorcana, which lets players construct TCG decks around classic and reimagined Disney characters, has been a huge success for Ravensburger since its release in August last year.

Ravensburger CEO Stephane Madi told ICv2 in April this year that the response to the game from Disney fans, collectors and TCG players had been “overwhelmingly positive”, adding: “We couldn’t have hoped for a better result.”

The game’s fourth expansion, titled Shimmering Skies, was released last month, with fifth expansion Azurite Sea set to hit stores in November.