Shop Named Super Mario Won Legal Battle with Nintendo Over Its Name

A supermarket in Costa Rica named Super Mario won a legal battle over its name initiated by Nintendo and preserved the right to keep it.

The shop is run by a local man Don José Mario Alfaro González, Mario for short. In a Facebook post, his son, Carlos "Charlito" Alfaro, explained that he registered the shop's name Super Mario back in 2013. Last year, the name had to be renewed, which probably attracted Nintendo's attention. Carlos wrote that he wasn't sure about the victory in the dispute, mentioning a lot of legal documents provided by the video game company.

However, due to the effort of their lawyer, the shop owners managed to prove their right to the name: "Thank you enormously to my legal advisor and accountant José Edgardo Jimenez Blanco who took care of the registration and the subsequent fight for the right to a trademark."

According to the post, Nintendo has listed a number of spheres where it has an exclusive right to use the trademark. However, the list doesn't include grocery stores, and this fact helped the Costa Rican shop to keep its name: "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 failed in our favor."

Recently, Nintendo allegedly confronted Genki, who had shown an unofficial prototype of Nintendo Switch 2 at CES 2025. Before, it sued Palworld's developer Pocketpair over alleged patent infringement.

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