The outfit, which is famous for bullying people who even think about borrowing its IP, must have thought it was certain to victory when it heard that  a small supermarket in Costa Rica was named Super Mario.

Unlike many businesses that back down in the face of Nintendo’s legal threats, this family-owned store stood its ground—and won. 

The supermarket, owned by a man named Mario, has operated under the Super Mario name since 2013 and holds a trademark for the brand. When Mario’s son, Charlito, attempted to renew the registration last year, Nintendo’s legal team intervened, claiming the name infringed upon its Super Mario trademark.

However, Costa Rica’s trademark authority, the National Register, ruled in favour of the supermarket, noting that Nintendo’s trademark registrations did not explicitly cover supermarket names. 

Techdirt’s Timothy Geigner said the store never tried associating itself with Nintendo’s gaming franchise.

“The shop already had the name for over a decade, and had a trademark on the name for over a decade, all apparently without any noticeable effect on Nintendo's enormous business. For a renewal of that mark to trigger this kind of conflict is absurd,” he wrote.