Upper Deck has filed a lawsuit against the Disney Lorcana developers, including Ravensburger and former Upper Deck game designer Ryan Miller as the primary targets of the suit.

Lawsuit Filed Against Ravensburger and Former Upper Deck Designer

Upper Deck, founded in 1988, is a private company primarily known for producing trading cards. The company is filing a suit against Ravensburger and a previously employed Upper Deck game designer “for stealing and copying Upper Deck’s original game which Ravensburger repackaged and marketed as ‘Lorcana,” BoardGameGeek reports.

Though unnamed in the press release, the official complaint filed by Upper Deck names Ryan Miller, a former designer at the company who has had three designs previously published by Upper Deck.

From the press release announcing this action, Upper Deck President Jason Masherah stated the following:

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. 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.

Upper Deck plans to file the lawsuit in San Diego against Miller for “breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud” and also against Ravensburger for “unfair business practices.” In addition, the filing states that Ravensburger “acted in concert with Miller during much of the time relevant to this Complaint, resulting in a breach of Miller’s California contracts.”

Through the filing, Upper Deck proceeds to tell the story of Miller’s involvement in designing a card game called “Rush of Ikorr” for the company, detailing a freelance working relationship under which Miller was to maintain confidentiality. He was also involved in a Gaming Summit, where the company claims Miller worked alongside other Upper Deck designers to further develop the ruleset for their upcoming trading card game.

At the Gaming Summit, Miller, among other game designers, and Upper Deck personnel and senior management discussed, conceived, and created what would become the trading card game currently called “Rush of Ikorr.” Upper Deck subsequently offered Miller the role as lead game designer in 2019.

Miller later left the company to work with Ravensburger, and the filing states that “Upper Deck was able to inspect ‘Lorcana’s’ publicly posted rules, and determined ‘Lorcana’ and ‘Rush of Ikorr’ were nearly identical.”

Also according to the filing, in April 2023, Upper Deck filed a patent application for “Rush of Ikorr.” Disney filed a patent for Lorcana in December 2021.

You can take a look at the complete filing here.

Disney Lorcana

Disney Lorcana has not been released to the public yet, but is planning to release first in local gaming stores in August, with an online release on shopDisney in September. Below are the details for what the first set, or “The First Chapter,” will have available within.

Players can use one of Lorcana’s pre-built starter decks or build their own deck. The initial release of Disney Lorcana, entitled The First Chapter, will include starter decks and booster packs.

A gift set and a collector’s edition, the “Illumineer’s Trove” will be available for purchase.

Gift Set

The gift set comes with the following:

• Two oversized foil cards
  • Hades – King of Olympus
  • Mulan – Imperial Soldier
• Two playable foil cards
• 34 game tokens
• Four booster packs

Illumineer’s Trove

The Illumineer’s Trove includes:

• One storage box
• Two deck boxes
• Eight booster packs
• 15 game tokens
• One player’s guide

Disney Lorcana Accessories

Several accessories will be released at the same time as The First Chapter.

Card Sleeves

Each pack will contain 65 matte-finished card sleeves featuring a Disney Lorcana “glimmer,” which is a stylized representation of a Disney character rendered specifically for Disney Lorcana. The first characters featured will be Captain Hook, Elsa, and Mickey Mouse. If you’re interested in buying larger quantities, there are 40 packs of sleeves in a case.

Deck Boxes

Each deck box can hold up to 80 sleeved cards. The first Disney Lorcana deck boxes will feature the same characters as the sleeves, for players who like to match their accessories. Captain Hook, Elsa, and Mickey Mouse will be available. Should you choose to buy in bulk, you will receive 24 deck boxes in a case.

Playmats

Each playmat features artwork of Disney characters. Similar to a mouse pad, these mats are meant to protect your card collection as well as your tabletop. It features a rubbery, anti-slip bottom to help keep the mat in place during use. Unlike the deck boxes and card sleeves, the first Disney Lorcana playmats will feature Maleficent, Maui, and Mickey Mouse. Buying these by the case will get you 12 playmats per case.

Portfolios

Finally, players can further protect their investment with portable card portfolios. Each holds 64 standard cards as well as eight oversized cards. The first card portfolios will feature Stitch and The Evil Queen. A case contains 12 portfolios.

What are your thoughts on this new Disney Lorcana development? We’d like to read them in the comments below.

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