Nintendo is suing a Japanese go-kart company for hosting real-life Mario Kart racing events throughout the streets of Tokyo.
Marika is a company in Japan that hosts go-kart racing tournaments where attendees dress up as Mario Kart characters and zoom around the city of Tokyo. These races are quite popular, however Marika (an abbreviation for Mario Kart) didn't get Nintendo's permission, nor are they paying Nintendo for the rights to use their characters.
Once Nintendo got wind of this they instantly filed a lawsuit seeking "compensation for unfair competition and copyright infringement acts."
Nintendo explains how this will proceed in a recent press release:
"In this lawsuit, when defendant companies provide rental services for public road carts, we have declared the mark "Marika" which is an abbreviation of "Mario Kart" widely known as the series of racing games that we manufacture and sell. In addition, when the defendant company rents public road carts to their customers, it lends a costume of prominent character such as our "Mario" etc, and then the image or video of the costume is displayed.
"They use it for publicity and sales without obtaining our permission, but we insist that such an act falls under unfair competition and copyright infringement acts against us."
The press release confirms Marika, the infringing go-kart company, has signed an agreement with Nintendo regarding the matter, but the Japanese console-maker is still seeking damages and compensation.
Prosecution on litigation against the act of using our intellectual property accompanying rental service of public road cart
On February 24, 2017, Marika Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo, hereinafter referred to as the "defendant company") announced that it has entered into an agreement with Nintendo Co., Ltd. (Head office: Minami Ward, Kyoto City, President: Takeshi Kimishima, And the representative director (hereinafter collectively referred to as "defendants"), a lawsuit seeking defendants against compensation for unfair competition and copyright infringement acts by defendant companies, etc. and damages caused by the above act In the Tokyo District Court.
In this lawsuit, when defendant companies provide rental services for public road carts, we have declared the mark "Marika" which is an abbreviation of "Mario Kart" widely known as the series of racing games that we manufacture and sell In addition, when the defendant company rents public road carts to their customers, they lend a costume of prominent character such as our "Mario" etc, and then the image or video of the costume is displayed.
They use it for publicity and sales without obtaining our permission, but we insist that such an act falls under unfair competition and copyright infringement acts against us.
In order to protect our valuable intellectual property that we have built up over many years of effort, we will continue to take resolute measures in the future.