The owner of the Super Mario grocery store in San Ramón, Costa Rica, won Nintendo on January 28, telling his observers on Facebook that the attempt to have a huge video developer was rejected by the registration of the Nacional country. The post was noticed for the first time Resetera user.
In the process of our own reporting, Polygon received several documents from a lawyer representing the owner of Super Mario, Jose Mario Alfaro González confirming his history. Nintendo did not answer the request for comment.
González for the first time applied for a Super Mario trademark in December 2013. He was just trying to renew his trademark in March 2024 Basic basketLocal designation of necessary things, such as rice, beans and coffee, which Nintendo noticed for the first time. An agent representing Nintendo of America – whose office, indicates that he regularly deals with the conditional signs of the company’s intellectual properties in Costa Rica – he arranged official opposition to González’s trademark with the registration of Nacional in July 2024.
The opposition submitted on behalf of Nintendo cited three main problems, claiming that the Super Mario grocery store sold more than just Basic basket And he only used this classification to hide imitation, Mario photos from the Super Mario franchise were used to promote on Facebook, and had previously knowledge about Mario and the Super Mario series because of his stockings of products with Super Mario characters.
Lawyer González argued that the Super Mario grocery store works strongly as part of the selected specification as a supplier Basic basket (Category for which Nintendo is not the owner of the Super Mario trademark) and never promoted Nintendo of America Products (a cursory search for Polygon has revealed many toys for Super Mario games published on the Facebook store’s website to be unofficial bootlegs). He also drew attention to the employ of “great” in Costa Rica as a slang for the “supermarket”, not as a superlative, as in the case of the Super Mario series.
After reviewing the legal advisor with registration, Nacional ended in November 2024. The opposition raised by the representative of Nintendo from America had no merit. The agency officially accepted the renewal of González’s trademark a month later. Nintendo is able to appeal against this decision, but there is no indication or does it at the time of writing.
A lot of online thought from the SUPER MARIO grocery store, a newfangled situation of David and Goliath, celebrating the victory of a little guy over a multi -billion corporation. Nintendo in recent years has become known for his persistent dispute, mainly against those who facilitate the emulation of their video games, but also in defense of patents, as in the case of Pokémon Clone Palworld. Well or bad, famously notable to the Nintendo family is seen today as a kind of tyrant, although the long -awaited disclosure of Switch 2 has calmed down these conversations a bit.
As for González, he seems content that he can lead his supermarket, like for over a decade, a great Mario name.
