Nintendo Loses Trademark Battle Against Super Mario Supermarket

Nintendo is notoriously litigious over its intellectual property, and has filed many lawsuits against all sorts of parties in efforts to protect their trademarks.

In a rare instance, a Costa Rican supermarket has emerged victorious after targeted by Nintendo over its name: Super Mario. Contrary to what you might think, the store gets its name because its a Super-market owned by a local man named Don José Mario Alfaro González, and has nothing to do with the iconic videogame character. The branding of the store reflects this, with a simple blue and yellow color scheme that is the farthest thing from Nintendo or Mario’s color scheme.

As shared by the owner’s son Carlos “Charlito” Alfaro on Facebook, they originally trademarked the name Super Mario for the store back in 2013, and drew the attention of Nintendo when it was time for the trademark to be renewed last year. Charlito says that their lawyer José Edgardo Jimenez Blanco was able to show that while Nintendo owned the global trademark for Super Mario in many different categories, they did not own it specifically for its use in supermarkets. This was enough for the Costa Rica’s trademark authorities to rule in the Super Mario supermarket’s favor.

They have a lot of categories listed, video games, clothing, collectibles, toys, school supplies, ornaments, etc. But not the sale of groceries and that’s why the National Register filed in our favor.

Charlito also posted a video to celebrate the win, saying that he is mostly happy for his father, whose hard work at the store is often unappreciated.

What do you think? Let us know in the comments.