Nintendo wins 500-million yen lawsuit against operator of Tokyo 'real-life Mario Kart' company

Jan 31, 2020 | News On Japan

Jan 31, 2020 (soranews24.com) - Intellectual Property High Court slams the breaks for the company once known as 'MariCar.'

Itâ€™s a testament to the success of the Nintendo franchise that itâ€™s pretty much impossible to see a go-kart and not, withing about a single second, think of Mario Kart. Honestly, with a dozen-plus games released over a span of 27 years, most people alive today have spent far, far more time driving an in-game Mario Kart than one of the real-life runabouts.

All the same, Tokyo-based Mari Mobility Development leaned a little too heavily into its marketing plan of billing itself as a real-life Mario Kart rental company. For starters, the companyâ€™s original name was â€œMariCar,â€ which when written in Japanese katakana script (ãƒžãƒªã‚«ãƒ¼), is exactly the same as the fan nickname for the Mario Kart series in Japan. Then there was the way Mari doubled down by renting, for an additional charge, costumes so drivers could dress up as Mario, Luigi, and other Nintendo characters as they zipped around the streets of Tokyo.

The rental service became a hit with foreign tourists, but when Nintendo found out about it, they decided to take Mari to court for what they felt was unlawful use of the Mario Kart name and imagery (the lookalike costumes were also heavily featured in Mariâ€™s ads and promotional videos). The first trial began in 2017, and now, nearly three full years later, it looks like the lawsuit is coming to a close with a massive monetary victory for Nintendo.

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