Nintendo Wins Lawsuit Against Maricar Go-Kart Company

Japanese outfit Maricar has hit the proverbial banana peel in court. The company, which now goes by Mari Mobility Development, Inc., has lost a lawsuit filed against it by Nintendo over the use of the latter’s Mario Kart vehicles and character likenesses. In brief, Maricar basically sold itself as a “real life” version of Mario Kart. Needless to say, Nintendo was not pleased.

The lawsuit took umbrage with multiple different aspects of the Maricar business. Maricar itself is very close to the term “Marikar,” for example, which in Japan is frequently used as an abbreviation for the name “Mario Kart.” Several attempts at trademarking phrasings like “Maricar Tour” further bolstered Nintendo’s case against the company. In September of 2018, Maricar was ordered to pay ¥10 million (roughly $92,000), but the award has been increased to ¥50 million (about $462,000).

This isn’t the first legal case Nintendo has successfully had litigated, with the verdict in the company’s favor against iLife over its Wii Remote motion technology being the most recent example.

Source: Siliconera