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Since the U.S. military unveiled a deck of "most-wanted'' Iraqi playing cards a week ago, U.S. companies have been scrambling to get the cards into the hands of an enthusiastic public.
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That scramble, which has seen dozens of companies offer quickie versions of the cards from $ 1 to $ 300, has turned into a war of its own.

The cards are replicas of the 200 decks distributed to U.S. troops identifying 55 Iraqis sought by the military, topped by Saddam himself as the ace of spades.

U.S. Playing Card Co. in Cincinnati, the largest playing-card company outside China, is making the cards for a Lake Forest, Ill., firm that sells the cards on the Internet. Unlike the original military cards, which have squared corners, these are plastic-coated with rounded corners, more suitable for game-playing.

The company is launching a campaign of its own to stop other companies from making and selling the cards. The reason: The cards unveiled by the Pentagon include the image of a Hoyle joker, which is copyrighted by the U.S. Playing Card Co.

"We didn't think there would be this many people selling these at a profit using our intellectual property,'' said George White, vice president of marketing for the company. "We will pursue protection of our intellectual property to the best extent we can.'' The company has also asked the Department of Defense to clarify to others that the joker image is protected, White said.

Other companies -- including one Columbus mail-order firm -- are struggling to meet demand for what one card dealer calls the hottest deck since World War II.

"We were just overwhelmed by how much it's taken off,'' said Bill Dollison, sales manager of Newt's Playing Cards, a mail-order and Internet company based on Columbus' West Side. "We thought we would sell maybe 3,000 or 5,000 decks and it would be over. We have sold well over 15,000 decks, and we probably have that many orders waiting.'' The original cards were unveiled by Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks during a news briefing April 11, triggering public demand. The Defense Department responded by putting copies of the cards on its Web site.

The cards began appearing for sale almost immediately after, with some knock-off decks based on Pentagon Web site images going for $ 300 on eBay.

Major manufacturers and retailers soon jumped on the bandwagon.

Newt's contacted playing-card manufacturers in Tennessee and Texas almost immediately after the cards appeared.

"On Saturday morning, we made a decision to produce these after receiving calls Friday night,'' Dollison said. "We thought, 'Oh, this will last a week or two and be over,' but now it seems like it's not slowing down.'' One of the biggest sellers of the cards has been a start-up company called greatusaflags.com, a subsidiary of a Lake Forest, Ill., wine importer called Lionstone International.

"We started selling them Sunday night and sold 175,000 decks so far,'' said Nick Lucca, one of the partners in the company. "Our servers could barely handle the volume.'' Lionstone contacted U.S. Playing Card, makers of such card brands as Bicycle, to help meet production demand.

U.S. Playing Card, which has been in business since 1867, has a long history of working with the military. The company has created several special decks for the armed services, including a deck distributed to U.S. prisoners of war during World War II that included a hidden escape map.

The merchandising of these cards has raised eyebrows at the Pentagon, even though the Department of Defense posted the images on its Web site without copyright protection.

"It's disappointing that people are trying to make a profit from them,'' said Lt. Col. David Lapan, a Pentagon spokesman.

Copyright © April 19, 2003. The Columbus Dispatch.