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Comment by oniony | Hacker News Reader

So, Nintendo of America, whose president is Doug Bowser, and who previously sued a Gary Bowser, had gone to court with a José Mario Alfaro González, who owns the supermarket chain Super Mario.

I'm pretty sure, at this point, they're just joshing us all.

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> José Mario Alfaro González

Just to add to it all: In Paper Mario: TTYD there’s a segment where Mario infiltrates a professional wrestling promotion, and in the English translation he uses the name “The Great Gonzalez”.

Most likely a reference to the boxer Rodolfo González, who was extremely popular in Japan and is frequently referenced in video games (e.g. Gato in Chrono Trigger is named Gonzalez in the Japanese release).

Interesting, I never knew (or bothered to look into…) the context, but it did seem like a non sequitur given Mario’s vague Italian heritage. That seems likely.

Haha I actually had no idea about all this, given Nintendos proclivity for suing people over seemingly small things, I can imagine the hiring process involved something along the lines of "If you don't join us, we'll sue your family for infringement"

Not familiar with the Costa Rican legal system, but in US law you can lose your trademark if you don't actively protect it from infringement. They are legally obligated to be litigious.

This is often parroted and almost never true. US courts will not kill one of the biggest and most well-recognized companies in the world because of one tiny corner supermarket.

In any way, Nintendo suing a supermarket due to trademark violations is nonsense.

What are they claiming? That people will confuse it with a gaming console?

I'm still waiting for Nintendo to sue parents for naming their kids Mario.

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