No one’s safe from copyright infringement with Nintendo around.
In Japan, Nintendo won an intellectual property infringement court case against, believe it or not, a go-kart operator called Mari Mobility, previously called Maricar. According to the courts, Mari Mobility was guilty on infringing on Mario Kart as the original name was too similar. Moreover, Mari Mobility offers customers Nintendo character-themed costumes to wear.
Mari Mobility now owes Nintendo 50 million yen (roughly $605,000 CAD) after it lost an appeal, according to Inside. Originally, Nintendo was awarded 10 million yen (roughly $121,000 CAD.)
Following the suit, Nintendo released an official statement saying that it would continue to take necessary measures against infringement of intellectual property. So anyone infringing beware.
Before the lawsuit Mari Mobility had written “Unrelated to Nintendo,” but now the company rebranded its go-karting service as ‘Street Kart’ and features more of a superhero theme.
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