When I visited Japan back in 2018 one thing that I saw in Tokyo was people driving around in go-carts that resembled Mario Karts. It was one of the things that I wanted to try, but honestly I got scared because you are actually riding around in the streets of Tokyo with other drivers. It was interesting to see people go by dressed as a Mario character or in a kigarumi, it was adorable. Well what you may or may not know is that the Mario Karts that would go through the city of Toyko was under a HUGE lawsuit for copyright. Nintendo has announced that they have won their court case against Mari Mobility the company behind the go-karts.
Mari Mobility has to pay a whopping 50 million Yen ($458,000 usd) for infringing on the IP rights. (IPR System in Japan. According to the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) definition, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are the rights given to a person over their creations. They usually give the creator an exclusive right over the use of his/her creation for a certain period of time.)
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Maybe it’s for the best that this gets closed down because there have been accidents, such as a Taiwanese tourist who was involved in a hit and run with a cyclist. Other companies have been offering this as well, but Mari Mobility is one of the more popular ones. If you wanted to do Mario go-karts, good news! Nintendo will include that in their Super Nintendo Themed park in Osaka.
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