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It’s a sad day for live Mario Kart fans in Japan and the rest of the world. Nintendo has filed a lawsuit against Mari Mobility Development Co., Ltd for their infringement of the Mario Kart brand for their live street go-kart racing that’s all the rage in Tokyo. The reason? Because the MariCar guys are damaging the Mario Kart franchise with the racing and probably the accidents that follow.
The Tokyo District Court ruled against MARI Mobility Development, which means the company must cease lending out Nintendo-themed cosplay and pay nearly US$89,000 in damages. So far, the MariCar site is still up.
In the meantime, you can see what the fuss is all about on the videos below.
You can read the legal document below (via Nintendo).
Nintendo Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Minami-ku, Kyoto-shi, President: Shuntaro Furukawa, Shuntaro Furukawa, hereinafter referred to as “the Company”) announced that it has filed a lawsuit against the use of our intellectual property due to the rental service of public road cart Regarding filing “, as announced, Marika Co., Ltd. (current trade name: MARI Mobility Development Co., Ltd., head office: Tokyo Shinagawa Ward, hereinafter” defendant company “) and its representative director (hereinafter also” defendants “) , Filed a lawsuit in Tokyo district court seeking against injunctions of infringement of intellectual property rights by the defendant company and for damages caused by the above acts against the defendants (Heisei 29 (Wa) No. 6293).
　Regarding the above case, today, in Tokyo District Court, after acknowledging that the mark “Marika” etc. is widely known as the Company’s product indication in relation to the consumer’s consumers, Then, it is instructed to stop unfair competition (for example, it is exemplified in the sentence that procurement of the costume of character such as Mario etc in the business of defendant company is prohibited), payment of damages We have announced that a ruling was ordered, etc, so we will let you know.
　In order to protect our valued intellectual property that we have built up over many years of effort, we will continue to take necessary measures against infringement of intellectual property including our brand I am willing.
[…] down unofficial mods of their games and place cease-and-desist orders to emulator sites. In fact, they recently shut down MariCar, the unofficial Mario Kart tourist attraction in […]