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