Carlsbad Sports Card Firm Is Sued by Canadian Manufacturer

A Canadian manufacturing business announced Monday that it filed an $11-million lawsuit against a Carlsbad company that manufactures and distributes collectible sports cards.

Pro-Index Corp. of Ontario charged in its lawsuit that the Upper Deck Co. acted in bad faith, violated antitrust laws, breached a contract and used unfair business practices in dealing with the Canadian corporation. The lawsuit was filed in San Diego Superior Court.

Camron Bussard, a spokesman for Upper Deck, declined comment on the charges, except to say the company will defend against the lawsuit “quite vigorously.”

Pro-Index said that in 1991, it developed a carrying case system for protecting, carrying and displaying collectible cards. The system includes a hard case and indexing system to hold the cards.

Pro-Index said Upper Deck agreed to jointly manufacture and market the cases. Pro-Index charged in the lawsuit, filed in September, that Upper Deck failed to distribute and market the product, resulting in losses of between $10 million and $30 million for Pro-Index. The figures for the losses were based on projections for future sales, according to attorney Wilson Schooley, who represents Pro-Index.

“Upper Deck seems to have a pattern of getting into deals and backing out of them and not paying what they owe,” Schooley said.

The lawsuit also contends Upper Deck caused manufacturing delays and then tried to get out of the contract.

Pro-Index seeks $10 million in actual and punitive damages, $1 million in compensatory damages and an injunction to prevent Upper Deck from marketing a copy of the Pro-Index product.

Schooley said Pro-Index lost a prime opportunity to market its product because other companies have since introduced similar products.

“The company missed a long period of time when it could have been marketing the product. The company also missed a peak time for the industry,” Schooley said.