Mario Kart Themed Tour Service Gets Hit With $458,000 Fine

I’m not saying that it’s guaranteed, but at some point over the last year or two, it probably came to your attention that there was a tour company in Japan who were offering customers the opportunity to cruise around Toyko in go-karts wearing Mario Kart style costumes.

Known as Maricar or Mari Mobility (at the time – more on this shortly), the firm quickly gained popularity and was featured on many televised broadcasts. This did, however, also bring it to the attention of Nintendo who, as you might expect, was not too happy about the copyright infringement.

Following the legal battle, Nintendo was initially awarded a figure in the region of $90,000. A figure which Maricar (which had subsequently changed its name to “Street Kart”) appealed.

Well, in a report via Kotaku, following the rejection of the appeal, a newly revised verdict has been made. Specifically, awarding Nintendo an even greater amount of damages. How much? Well, around $456,000. Quite the step up from $90,000!

Nintendo Wins Tokyo Mario Kart Copyright Infringement

While ‘Street Kart’ had seemingly changed its platform to avoid any direct associations with Nintendo, it seems that the move came too late. Well, more specifically, that they didn’t make the change until long after it was clear that Nintendo wasn’t happy about it.

You may, at this point, be wondering why Nintendo was so hard on this issue. Well, if you think that then you clearly don’t know much about how vicious their IP lawyers are. More so, however, it was reported that a number of the karts were involved in accidents. Not exactly an ‘image’ Nintendo was happy being associated with.

What Will Happen Now?

With the company now changing its focus onto ‘Superheroes’ and pretty much stripping away any hint of Nintendo, one would presume that it would be safe to continue operating. That was, however, until the fine increased by over 4 times the original amount.

Following the increase in the fine, however, it may likely now to be too much for the company to swallow. It’s a pity, as the concept was rather fun. That being said though, we all knew that it was probably going to end this way!

What do you think? – Let us know in the comments!