In a surprising turn of events, Nintendo has actually lost a legal battle against an opponent that is several magnitudes smaller than itself. As spotted by Eurogamer today, the Costa Rican supermarket named “Super Mario” has emerged victorious in a trademark battle that The Big N started over its name. While you might think that this would be an open-and-shut case of trademark infringement, the full story reveals how tricky the world of legalese can be.
Located in San Ramón, Costa Rica, the Super Mario supermarket has been in business for 52 years now. Having opened its doors in 1973, which is a full 12 years before “Super Mario Bros.” became a brand, the supermarket hadn’t officially registered its name as a brand until 2013. Despite that, it had operated unopposed for decades and has been the legacy of owner Don José Mario Alfaro González, which is where it got its name from.
His son, Carlos “Charlito” Alfaro, now runs the shop along with his father, and the two made the name official in 2013. Since businesses need to renew their brand identities every decade or so, it was during a recent renewal that Nintendo’s lawyers took notice. Carlos doesn’t give an exact date for when the lawsuit was first brought to them, but either way, his store emerged victorious in a trademark dispute that he initially thought he wouldn’t win.
In a post on the store’s official Facebook group, Carlos wrote, “For a moment we thought about throwing in the towel, how were we going to win the [fight against] such a commercial monster? More with the amount of legal documents submitted by them to ensure the victory.” Thanks to the efforts of his legal advisor and accountant, José Edgardo Jimenez Blanco, Super Mario was able to cut through the nonsense and get Costa Rica’s trademark authority (the National Register) to side with them.
Whatever piece of evidence pushed the National Register to side with the store, it’s certainly a positive turn of events for trademark laws in general. Nintendo has been notoriously litigious in recent years and through sheer brute force, has basically won every lawsuit either against it or that it brings against others. It’s about time the company has given its just desserts over what is a truly stupid reason to sue someone.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
