Nintendo loses legal battle against Costa Rican grocery shop "Súper Mario" over its name

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The Japanese gaming giant has finally met its match, and this time, no amount of ninjas could hold up against a small Costa Rican grocery shop in a legal battle.

A Costa Rican grocery shop by the name of "Súper Mario" filled a registration for the name in Costa Rica back in 2013, without any issues or hurdles, while the naming has been used many years beforehand, with the registration in 2013 being a proper corporate image for the business. However, when it came time to renew the registered trademark, Nintendo jumped on claiming that the name "Super Mario" belonged to them worldwide.

After some back and forth between the grocery shop and Nintendo against the National Registry, the conclusion was made that; while Nintendo owned the registration for categories like videogames, clothing, toys, adornments, among many other things, a grocery or convenience shop was NOT one of them, and thus the National Registry of Costa Rica gave the final ruling in favour of the grocery shop, marking a legal loss for Nintendo.

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It's important to note, however, and to add the required context for the situation from a local perspective, that in many places in Latin America the term "Súper" is given to a place that sells groceries as a synonymous of sorts for a convenience or grocery shop. The shop's name could have been coined by going from that same term of "Súper" for the business, and adding the name of the possible owner at the time, "Mario".

:arrow: Source
:arrow: "Súper Mario" grocery shop Facebook page
 

SylverReZ

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"Super Mario" isn't a trademark. Mario could be the name of any particular person. The same may be stated for 'super,' which refers to the business as a supermarket.

Nintendo is clearly getting ahead of themselves with these false copyright claims; they are seeking to manipulate the judicial system such that anything with the name "Mario" is their property. What a bunch of cry babies.
 

LeyendaV

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It's important to note, however, and to add the required context for the situation from a local perspective, that in many places in Latin America the term "Súper" is given to a place that sells groceries as a synonymous of sorts for a convenience or grocery shop.
I can confirm this is accurate.
 

tech3475

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This is what I like to see. Copyright laws need to be revised, but it's nice to see Nintendo choking on its own bullshit for once.

It's actually trademark law, which AFAIK actively encourages this type of behaviour.

https://corsearch.com/content-library/blog/six-frustrating-ways-to-lose-your-trademark-rights/

this is as bad as when apple tried to sue the woolworths logo. they truly are the new apple! :rofl2:

They also got sued themselves, by The Beatles:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Corps_v_Apple_Computer
 

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