Real Life Mario Kart Company To Pay $458k in Damages to Nintendo

Popular tourist attraction, Mari Mobility (formerly Maricar) has been found guilty of infringement on Nintendo’s intellectual property. Mari Mobility offers customers that ability to ride go-karts around the streets of Tokyo, dressed up as Mario characters, and recently superheros. Nintendo sued in 2018, and was awarded $92k – but Mari Mobility decided to appeal. Which ended up costing them an additional $458k. Not good!

We at Street Kart is providing our service as usual. Street Kart is fully complied [SIC] through local governing laws in Japan. Street Kart is in no way a reflection of Nintendo, the game ‘Mario Kart’. (We do not provide rental of costumes of Mario Series.)

I can’t help but respect Mari Mobility for thinking that this isn’t a clear rip off. They even went to the extent of writing “unrelated to Nintendo” on the back of the Karts. If that doesn’t scream “we’re doing something wrong” I don’t know what does. Oh, writing we aren’t involved will help you steer clear of lawsuits. Wrong. I don’t blame Nintendo for swooping in. Last thing you want is your brand being tied to drunk Toad’s flying around the streets of Tokyo causing havoc. Kinda sounds like a blast if we’re keeping it a buck.

I can’t help but think Mari Mobility is going to be completely out of business after that. How can a company that specializes in letting people dress up in costumes and ride go-karts afford to pay out almost a half a million dollars? Are people really dumb enough to pay stupid money to do this? Go to your local go-kart course, dress up as whatever the fuck you want, and have a day. Probably a lot cheaper. And you won’t get hit by trucks, or drive into bodega windows.