For those who have visited Tokyo or Osaka, you might be familiar with or have at least seen people dressed in costumes from the Mario franchise driving around the streets in go karts. You could almost be fooled into thinking that this was some kind of official Mario Kart service provided by Nintendo, but it isn’t.
In fact the service has been in operation for a long time now, but it was only last month that the Japan courts ruled in favor of Nintendo. The victory meant that Nintendo had won their claim against the company, MariCar, which would have forced the company to stop their operations, pay damages to Nintendo, and stop using any character likeness from Nintendo franchises. However as it turns out, the company is continuing to operate.
According to Livedoor News (via Kotaku Australia), the company which is now going by the name of MariMobility is continuing to operate as per usual, and customers dressed in various Nintendo character costumes can still be seen zipping up and down the streets of Japan. It is said that the company is in the process of appealing the lawsuit, although we imagine it might be a tough sell since it is pretty obvious what they’re selling, but we’ll just have to wait and see.
Filed in . Read more about Japan, Legal, Mario Kart and Nintendo.