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A street racing attraction inspired by Mario Kart in Japan can no longer use the resemblance of Nintendo's popular video game characters, ruled a court this week.
MariCar, also known as Mari Mobility Development Co., will pay Japan's consumer electronics company 10 million yen, or about $ 89,000, to dress its customers in costumes that look like popular characters like Mario , Luigi and Toad.
The Tokyo District Court ruled that the company – which rents tailor-made carts that tourists can use to travel to various parts of the city – violated Nintendo's copyright.
The lawsuit was filed on February 24, 2017, according to the Kotaku video game website. In an official statement at the time, Nintendo said it disagreed with the offer of Mario Kart suits. He also denounced the photos and videos putting them forward for the promotion.
Reacting to the new court ruling on Thursday, Nintendo said (translated via Google): "In order to protect our valuable intellectual property that we have accumulated over many years of efforts, we will continue to take the necessary measures against Intellectual property. "
Representatives of MariCar said that they were now reviewing the decision, reported Polygon.
In May of last year, MariCar attracted a lot of attention after its carts were put online by Australian actor Hugh Jackman. The project has mostly positive reviews on TripAdvisor – many customers praising its cartoony costumes. The English language website remains online, but now lacks images of Mario Kart's characters. Images still exist on Facebook.
"Thank you for your continued support," reads a statement posted on the website. "MariCar provides our service as usual. MariCar is fully compliant with local laws in Japan. "
Further down, he points out that the firm "is in no way a reflection of the game Mario Kart". She advises against throwing banana peels or turtle shells in the street, two popular hits in the game.
While Mario Kart's costumes have disappeared from the homepage of the site, the company still seems to use the similarity of other pop culture characters, including Superman and Spiderman.
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