Ravensburger Challenges Upper Deck Lawsuit, Calls It “PR Stunt”

Game publisher Ravensburger has filed a motion to dismiss competitor Upper Deck’s lawsuit. Upper Deck is suing Ravensburger for allegedly using Upper Deck intellectual property in the development of Ravensburger’s upcoming Disney-themed trading card game, Lorcana.

The accusation involves game designer Ryan Miller, who spent some time as a contractor working with Upper Deck. Upper Deck claims that he took work he did for their game Rush Of Ikorr over to Ravensburger, and that work resulted in the Lorcana game.

Ravensburger’s legal team argues that Lorcana was already in development prior to Miller coming onto their team. More significantly, they state that the suit is brought in a California court against two defendants who are residents of Washington state, so there is a jurisdiction problem.

Another argument in the filing is that there was no fiduciary relationship between Miller and Upper Deck, as Miller was not an employee, but a brief contractor.

Ravensburger’s lawyers conclude, “While we respect the valid intellectual property rights of others, this appears to be more of a PR stunt than a genuine legal dispute.”

The ruling for this filing will be made on August 14th, which will be after Lorcana‘s Gen Con launch.