Disney Lorcana publisher Ravensburger has come out on top in its two-year legal battle with TCG creator Upper Deck, after a Seattle judge dismissed Upper Deck's copyright claims against the business and its efforts to file additional complaints were rejected.
The case is not fully concluded, however. Upper Deck's breach of contract allegations against Lorcana's co-designer Ryan Miller will go to trial in November, but Ravensburger as an entity is now no longer involved.
This legal spat began in June 2023, just before Lorcana launched, when Upper Deck claimed the Disney game was a rip-off of its own in-progress TCG Rush of Ikorr, which has a mythology theme and launched in June of this year
Upper Deck claims that Miller took confidential designs made for Rush of Ikorr and used them to create Disney Lorcana. Miller worked as a freelance game designer until joining Ravensburger full time in November 2020, and for a time was working in a freelance capacity for both companies.
Upper Deck was suing Ravensburger for copyright infringement, fraud, and unfair competition. It pointed to similarities between the Version 2.6 ruleset of its game (then known internally as Pantheon) and the finished Lorcana ruleset. These include a points-scoring feature that exhausts characters, after which they can be attacked; and similar keyword abilities, like evasive in Lorcana and elusive in Rush of Ikorr.
But in an October 3, 2025 order, the Court gave a summary judgement, dismissing the copyright claims against Miller and Ravensburger on the grounds that game mechanics aren't protected by copyright law. The order states that "copyright protects only the particular manner of an author's expression in literary or artistic elements" and that "Version 2.6 has no creative characters, narrative, plot, or themes to render expressive its non-protectable elements."
This leaves only the breach of contract claim against Miller proceeding to trial. And presumably, suing an individual rather than a company backed by Disney money, would mean much lower potential damages awarded to Upper Deck.
After this summary judgement, the Rush of Ikorr publisher attempted to file new claims of misappropriation of trade secrets against Ravensburger, but these were dismissed by Judge Kimberly Evanson on October 15.
In a press release, Ravensburger's lead counsel, David A. Perez says "After reviewing all the facts in this case, the Court concluded that no reasonable person could find copyright infringement - which is what Ravensburger has been arguing since Day 1."
"Several current and former game developers from Upper Deck came out strongly in favor of Ravensburger. That Upper Deck's own developers disagreed so strongly with their case shows that these claims should never have been filed in the first place."
Upper Deck has also provided its statement. "We disagree with the recent decision and remain confident in the facts," says the company's president, Jason Masherah.
"We plan to appeal and proceed with the remaining claims in the U.S. as well as continue with a recently filed lawsuit in Europe, where the law offers stronger protections for intellectual property. We are committed to protecting our original trading card game".
It sounds like there might still be some chapters left in this saga, after all. There's plenty you can read while you wait, though, like our guide to the best board games of all time. You can also come share your thoughts in the lovely Wargamer Discord.