Nintendo has announced a lawsuit against a Tokyo-based kart rental service called MariCar. Nintendo has pointed out that MariCar is an obvious abbreviation of Mario Kart and believes that the service is infringing upon its properties.
Nintendo has announced that it is bringing a copyright infringement suit against the company which organizes tours of Tokyo's Shibuya ward with a super Mario kart theme. The company, named MariCar, has go karts much like those found in the game and has its customers dress up as characters from the Mario universe.
Tokyo is home to different karting businesses as the vehicles are street legal. Previously, Kotaku profiled Akiba Kart, which rents out karts to those who want to explore the city by go-kart. The whole karting-on-Tokyo-streets thing seems to have started around 2011 when two guys from Japanese car site Cliccar dressed up as Mario and Luigi and karted around Shibuya.
Nintendo is suing MariCar over copyright infringement claims as well as for allegedly violating Japan's Unfair Competition Prevention Act. It does not appear that MariCar is paying the game maker any royalties or licensing fees.