Nintendo Loses Trademark Battle With a Costa Rican Grocery Store (techdirt.com) 21
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Techdirt: While most of our conversations about Nintendo recently have focused on the somewhat bizarre patent lawsuit the company filed against Pocketpair over the hit game Palworld, traditionally our coverage of the company has focused more on the very wide net of IP bullying it engages in. This is a company absolutely notorious for behaving in as protectionist a fashion as possible with anything even remotely related to its IP. That reputation is so well known, in fact, that it serves the company's bullying purposes. When smaller entities get threat letters or oppositions to applied-for trademarks and the like, some simply back down without a fight.
But not the Super Mario shop in Costa Rica, it seems. The supermarket store owned by a man named Mario (hence the name), has had a trademark on its name since 2013. But when Mario's son, Charlito, went to renew the registration, Nintendo's lawyers suddenly came calling. Last year it was time to renew the registration, Charlito stated, which prompted Nintendo to get involved. While Nintendo has trademarked the use of Super Mario worldwide under numerous categories, including video games, clothing and toys, it appears the company did not specifically state anything about the names of supermarkets. This, Charlito says, was the key factor in the decision by Costa Rica's trademark authority, the National Register, to side with the supermarket. "As you will see from the picture [here], it is extremely clear, based on the rest of the store's signage and branding, that there is absolutely no attempt in any of this to draw any kind of association with Nintendo's iconic character," writes Techdirt's Timothy Geigner. "The shop already had the name for over a decade, and had a trademark on the name for over a decade, all apparently without any noticeable effect on Nintendo's enormous business. For a renewal of that mark to trigger this kind of conflict is absurd."
But not the Super Mario shop in Costa Rica, it seems. The supermarket store owned by a man named Mario (hence the name), has had a trademark on its name since 2013. But when Mario's son, Charlito, went to renew the registration, Nintendo's lawyers suddenly came calling. Last year it was time to renew the registration, Charlito stated, which prompted Nintendo to get involved. While Nintendo has trademarked the use of Super Mario worldwide under numerous categories, including video games, clothing and toys, it appears the company did not specifically state anything about the names of supermarkets. This, Charlito says, was the key factor in the decision by Costa Rica's trademark authority, the National Register, to side with the supermarket. "As you will see from the picture [here], it is extremely clear, based on the rest of the store's signage and branding, that there is absolutely no attempt in any of this to draw any kind of association with Nintendo's iconic character," writes Techdirt's Timothy Geigner. "The shop already had the name for over a decade, and had a trademark on the name for over a decade, all apparently without any noticeable effect on Nintendo's enormous business. For a renewal of that mark to trigger this kind of conflict is absurd."
Imagine the ruckus... (Score:5, Funny)
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"Clean up, aisle 5." (Score:2, Funny)
How about a link to the article and not just a pic (Score:2)
Come on Slashdot. Only link was to the picture?
Admittedly no one reads the articles, we only look at the pictures, but could we at least pretend to read the fine article.
Thanks
Re:How about a link to the article and not just a (Score:5, Informative)
There you go: https://www.techdirt.com/2025/... [techdirt.com]
Not that difficult to find.
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Rather than feed you a fish like my sibling poster, I will teach you to fish. If you look at the article headline on the front page there is some text after it that says (techdirt.com). That is a link to the source article.
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Re: How about a link to the article and not just a (Score:2)
It's bad HTML practice too. Link text should be descriptive.
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> (semi seriously, a picture to describe the article would be a cool feature ;-) )
Not sure I'd like that. The image for all the AI and "Windows 11" related stuff would probably end up being one of the old Slashdot "favourites" - Goatse. Tubgirl, "Penis Bird" or "Lemon Party" etc.
n.b. If you're not familiar with these images I'd suggest not searching for them :)
MINE MINE MINE! (Score:2)
"For a renewal of that mark to trigger this kind of conflict is absurd."
All part of today's "I got mine, screw you, you don't get any" ethos.
Nintendo just need to get them some plumbing issue (Score:2)
Nintendo just need to get them some plumbing issues
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They could send some Donkey Kong muscle their way for old times sake.
Did they aleady sue (Score:2)
Mario Lanza (the tenor) ?
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at least the little guy can fight an Trademark tro (Score:3)
at least the little guy can fight an Trademark troll with out the big bill
And the Streisand effect takes hold (Score:2)
There (was) one in Boston as well (Score:2)
There was a "Super Mario Store" in Boston I used to pass by every once and a while. Looks like it is out of business now, but it still shows up on street view [google.com]. I suspect this is not all that rare since Mario is a fairly common name. This also happens to be a Latino neighborhood as well. There's also a "10 Eleven Latin Market" down the street, so maybe there is a tradition of elbowing big brands among business owners in that neighborhood.
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there is Mickey food products in Paraguay. Since Disney never bothered with the paraguayan market, this company registered the trademark. Including a logo featuring The Mouse himself.
Disney sued, and lost.
https://mickey.com.py/ [mickey.com.py]
This reminds me of... (Score:2)