Tokyo, Japan is home to local businesses that offer rides to tourists in go-karts, letting them see the sights from the seat of a small car. One of these companies took things further than just that, dressing up as Mario Kart characters, and even letting riders wear costumes as well. A majority of their webpage's marketing also revolves around showing off customers dressed in Toad, Luigi, Yoshi, and Mario cosplay. It goes by the name "MariCar", even sounding slightly similar to its inspiration. Of course, Nintendo wasn't going to stand for their intellectual properties being used without licensing, so early last year, they filed a lawsuit against the company, demanding that they remove all references to the Mario Kart series and characters. Over a year later, Tokyo's District Court has made a ruling in the case, siding in favor of Nintendo. MariCar, which has rebranded to MariMobility must pay $90,000 in damages to Nintendo, and can no longer use Nintendo's owned properties to attract customers.

Source

 

[Metoroid0]

so they dont want a free commercial and people having fun...unless they are the one doing it....

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Nintendo really dissapointed me these last couple of years, and continue to do so....

 

[Bladexdsl]

took them long enough they been doing this for years

 

[Metoroid0]

There are so many "rational" people here on GBAtemp who just cant see how stupit this is. Making a "legal" point does not render this good in any way....

 

[codezer0]

Oh no, a company is protecting their IP, time to crucify them!

When the company in question probably wastes more on paper than the entire annual income of the person they're suing, it's only natural.

 

[Stephano]

I want someone to compile a list of all the blunders Nintendo has made when it has come to fans expressing their love for the company and what they could have done to make it better.
Examples being: This, Project M, Pokemon Uranium, ANY fan film ect.

 

[eyeliner]

Case being?

 

[SirNapkin1334]

View attachment 144835​

Tokyo, Japan is home to local businesses that offer rides to tourists in go-karts, letting them see the sights from the seat of a small car. One of these companies took things further than just that, dressing up as Mario Kart characters, and even letting riders wear costumes as well. A majority of their webpage's marketing also revolves around showing off customers dressed in Toad, Luigi, Yoshi, and Mario cosplay. It goes by the name "MariCar", even sounding slightly similar to its inspiration. Of course, Nintendo wasn't going to stand for their intellectual properties being used without licensing, so early last year, they filed a lawsuit against the company, demanding that they remove all references to the Mario Kart series and characters. Over a year later, Tokyo's District Court has made a ruling in the case, siding in favor of Nintendo. MariCar, which has rebranded to MariMobility must pay $90,000 in damages to Nintendo, and can no longer use Nintendo's owned properties to attract customers.

Source

Perhaps you should mention that people were legitimately getting confused between the two, and thought it was an official Nintendo thing.

 

[Tri-Z]

It’s prob if something tragic happened with racing the go carts on the street as Nintendo characters it would bring bad light on Nintendo and associate it with nintendo even though it’s not connected. It’s not like it’s hurting Nintendo’s money but it could if a tragic death happened or say safety issues weren’t followed and tragedy struck. People would just assume it’s Nintendo because of the logos. For what Nintendo sued them for that place would prob never make that in money and would prob go out of business before that anyway.
If it was a good idea nintendo would have just bought them instead. I should say a real money making idea rather then good idea.
So prob more protecting themselves from damage control

 

[SaberLilly]

I'm leaning towards Nintendo on this one, I mean imagine if someone got hurt doing this and tried to sue Ninty for their injuries. I mean its a fun idea and i wish i could have seen it for myself, but i have to take into account they used Nintendo's characters and name of their business to try and get money for themselves, yeah i think Nintendo suing for damages was a bit heavy handed, but i think its just their way of being like "hey, don't do this again or it'll be worse next time." Or we'd be seeing a lot more of nintendo suing for damages over fan creations like AM2R, Pokemon Uranium, etc.

 

[Jeong]

they get money without license
it's illegal
so many idiots who don't know this simple fact

 

[Shadow#1]

they get money without license
it's illegal
so many idiots who don't know this simple fact

Exactly

 

[ZachariasBarnham]

I may not agree with Nintendo about anything, but even I can see that they were in the right this time. Which is extremely rare.

 

[WhiteMaze]

I'm usually in favor of the small companies when it comes to cases like this.

However on this one, I have to side with Nintendo. This company is using their property to make a profit, and that requires licensing and approval from the owners of said content.

This isn't freaking China, thank god.

 

[chirogan]

If i were nintendo, i wouldnt shut it down like that.

Yes they used their ip for personal gains. But the subtle side and the thing they could not see is that this is a promotion for their company also. They are not selling goods. Theyre selling services so they are not losing/will gain too much money from this.

After all if they see mario, they remember nintendo. Not MariCar.

 

[Tac 21]

Once Again they spent a lot of money on lawsuits instead of actually improving things... SMH

if they don't protect their IP then if there is an issue with someone else using it and they go after them Courts MAY find in favor of the user because the IP holder didn't enforce before.

 

[ConKonner]

I think some people are going overboard with their responses; While its OK for Nintendo to protect their IPs, I think people wanted Nintendo to embrace the idea instead of shutting them down.

Shameless plug: they really could do a Mario kart ride park in real life; would be cool ;p

 

[cammelspit]

Copyright, unlike trademarks, can be enforced at your own pleasure. If I had a character I made and two people decided to make plushies for it, I could sue one because I didn't like the look of his face and not the other entirely at my whim. The court will enforce my right to decide regardless if I did or did not enforce that right before with someone else, or even the same person. With trademarks, it's very different. If I choose to not enforce my mark then I legally lose the rights to that mark altogether so I would be obligated to enforce my mark. In this case, Nintendo COULD have simply ignored it and there would have been zero downside or repercussions because of it. However, I think anyone who is even moderately in tune with reality can see this was a blatant ripping off of Nintendo's IP for profit, I would have done the same and so would you so don't kid yourselves. Just too many people, not understanding things here.

Though, I would also like to see a legally licensed version of this happen, sounds like it would be fun.