Legally he can't go to that company and print those images he posted on the Kickstarter page. Those images (i.e. court card designs and the designs on the tuck case) are exclusive properties of uspcc. He either has to completely change the deck or print with uspcc.
Actually, the faces look pretty generic. There's enough prior art that they could fight it if USPC made a stink. As long as the "specials" were adequately different (Ace of Spades, jokers, box art, card back) USPC wouldn't have much legal ground to stand on. It's akin to copyrighting a font (which courts view as trying to copyright the alphabet), or patenting the spoon. The only way they defend their current, classic art such as the Bicycle Rider Back or the Tally Ho Ace of Spades is based on trademark law, since the copyright on most of that ran out many years ago. Generic playing card faces such as these are very difficult to defend in court as being the property of any one company or another since so many have used them over the years.
Remember the whole "can't alter the backs" thing with the Rider Back? They're trying to strengthen their legal ownership of the design as a trademark. As a copyrighted design, anyone could legally copy, alter and do with the Rider Back what they wanted to due to the copyright being expired - but as a trademark, different rules apply. So, USPC certainly won't let you alter the Rider Back anymore, and while I could try a third-party publisher, the legal ground for me to do so wouldn't be entirely stable - unless I could prove that they alter the design as they see fit, and thus you can't call it a true trademark.
At the least, that's my story, and I'm sticking to it!
EDT: Caught that last post. IT would be nice to see this as a USPC deck, since it's obvious from the design elements that's what these guys were aiming for.
