A popular Japanese company that let you live out your childhood dreams and race karts dressed as Mario and company are being sued by Nintendo for Copyright Infringment.

The go karting firm that goes by the name "Maricar" lets anyone that holds a Japanese driving license race around public roads suited up as characters Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, Yoshi, Wario and Bowser. Lawyers have been called in by Nintendo as it believes its intellectual property is being infringed upon; looking at these photos it should come as no shock why.

MariCar.jpg
MariCar Characters.jpg

The news was announced in a press release by Nintendo, translated below.:

In this lawsuit, against the defendant company which provides rental services for public road carts, we have declared the mark 'Marika', which is an abbreviation of 'Mario Kart' widely known as the series of racing games that we manufacture and sell.

In addition, when the defendant company rents a public road cart to that customer, they lend a costume of a famous character such as our 'Mario', etc., and the image and the video of the costume are displayed.

They use it for publicity and sales without obtaining our permission, and we insist that such an act falls under unfair competition and copyright infringement acts against us.

For a closer look at Maricar you can follow this link.

What do you think about Nintendo's actions in this case? Fair enough or over-zealous?

[source nintendo.co.jp, via eurogamer.net]