A court in Tokyo, Japan has once again ruled in favour of Nintendo concerning the gaming giant's case against Mari Mobility Development Co. - a go-kart company that specialises (or specialised) in Mario Kart-related services.
Nintendo claims that Mari Mobility is damaging the reputation of its beloved racing series, and filed the initial suit back in February 2017, with the aim of protecting its "valued intellectual property".
Skip forward to September 2018, and Nintendo won its case in court. Mari Mobility - also known by its more familiar-sounding name MariCar - was ordered to pay a lump sum of 10 million yen (around £73,000) and stop using Mario-themed outfits.
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Only, they didn't.
The popular go-kart firm, who even caught the attention of Wolverine himself, Hugh Jackman, continued their business as usual, posting pictures on its social media channels and filing an appeal in the process.
Now, that appeal has gone against the company, the verdict once again awarded in Nintendo's favour, as Nintendo Life has reported. The court has reaffirmed the IP violations against Mari Mobility. It seems like losing the case has finally sunk in, too.
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The official website of Mari Mobility was noted to be "under maintenance" earlier this week, but now you can navigate your way around Street Kart, where not a single image of Nintendo-related characters can be found. A disclaimer reads: "Street Kart is in no way a reflection of Nintendo, the game 'Mario Kart'. (We do not provide rental of costumes of Mario Series.)"
They do, however, still provide a "Real Life SuperHero Go-Karting experience," and "have all the costumes you can think of". This includes Superman, Batman and Spider-Man-like costumes, judging by the customer pictures plastered on the site.
This isn't the first time - and it certainly won't be the last - that Nintendo has taken a company to court and won. In a much larger case, the video game firm was awarded $12 million in damages from a married couple who owned two ROM sites.
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The husband and wife pair from Arizona, who ran LoveROMS.com and LoveRetro.co, sold knock-off Nintendo titles such as Mario Kart 64, Pokémon Yellow, and Donkey Kong Country, before Nintendo bosses caught wind of their business and filed a suit in July last year.
What do you think about this action? Are Nintendo right to claim against the firm? Do you think they'll actually stop using Mario costumes? Let us know - we're on Twitter and Facebook, and we're now live on Snapchat Discover, too.
Featured Image Credit: Mari Mobility Development Co.Topics: Nintendo, Mario Kart
