Nintendo Suing “Real-Life Mario Kart” Company

Nintendo Co., Ltd., a major Japanese gaming company, on February 24 filed a lawsuit in the Tokyo District Court against MariCar Co. for copyright and trademark infringement. Nintendo is seeking damages for MariCar’s misappropriation of Nintendo’s characters from their popular game “Mario Kart”. MariCar provides a go-kart tour service in which riders wear costumes of different Nintendo characters while riding around Tokyo. Nintendo also alleges that MariCar is an abbreviation of Nintendo’s trademark “Mario Kart” and thus is a trademark violation. Nintendo argues that the unauthorized use is a violation of the Japanese Unfair Competition Prevention Law. Nintendo released a statement saying that “Nintendo will continue to take decisive measures in order to protect the important intellectual property that that has been built up over many years of effort.”