A Costa Rican supermarket has claimed victory against Nintendo in a trademark battle over its name: Super Mario.
  • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.worldEnglish
    19·
    19 hours ago

    I love Nintendo games. I HATE the company behind the games. And it’s not like this is recent shit either. This goes all the way back to the 80s. They tried sueing Blockbuster for including game manuals with their rentals.

    So if you remember blockbuster printing the important bits of the manual, like controls, on the plastic dust cover, that was their workaround to “including copyrighted documents”.

    And the only reason they sued for copyright infringement was because they tried to sue to end rentals completely, but blockbuster wasn’t breaking any laws. So Nintendo tried doing whag cops do, and bust you for something smaller, just to get you into court. Then try’d try to wear you down with lawsuits by showing you had a history of law breaking.

    Problem was, Nintendo just got a history of suing anyone and anything.

    Alternate timeline there’s a version of Nintendo who never sued anyone, but won THIS lawsuit, because they didn’t have that history of wasting the courts time for decades.

      • Atomic@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        9·
        20 hours ago

        They honestly probably don’t care much about the outcome.

        But they do have to challenge it as soon as they find out, otherwise it could be used against them in future cases.

  • SurfinBird@lemmy.caEnglish
    64·
    1 day ago

    “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.”

    Kind of a legal version of the Air Bud rule.

    • Kelly@lemmy.worldEnglish
      12·
      21 hours ago

      Nintendo has a lot of active “super mario” trademarks with the USPTO, 79259975 includes the following:

      G & S: IC 030: Tea; tea-based beverages; coffee; coffee-based beverages; cocoa; cocoa-based beverages; pastries; candy; ice cream; cookies; chocolate; popcorn; chewing gum; bread; buns; sandwiches; pizzas; pies; cakes; frozen yogurt confections; pancakes; crackers; mints for breath freshening; seasonings; ketchup; dressings for salad; cereal bars; oatmeal; corn flakes; noodles; pasta sauce.

      https://www.uspto.gov/trademarks/search

      This would limit the supermarket from carrying their own store brand product lines for these product types.

      Off the top of my head I can confirm my supermarket stocks their own brand of :

      Tea; coffee; cocoa; pastries; candy; ice cream; cookies; chocolate; bread; buns; pies; cakes; seasonings; dressings for salad; cereal bars; oatmeal; corn flakes; pasta sauce.

      Admittedly my local is part of a large chain so this may not be typical but even independent supermarkets in my area tend to repackage bulk candies and chocolate under their own label.

    • crank0271@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      22 hours ago

      On my way to open Super Mario Basketball Camp for Dogs (Especially Golden Retrievers)®️

    • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      20 hours ago

      It’s called SuperMarket Simulator.

      You can name your store whatever you want after you get to level 3.

    • jol@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
      4·
      21 hours ago

      You would not win in that case. Nintendo lost because their trademark does not apply to supermarkets. But if you made a game called super Mario, you would definitely lose.