The owner of the Super Mario grocery store in San Ramón, Costa Rica claimed victory over Nintendo on Jan. 28, telling his Facebook followers that an attempt by the massive video game developer to block his trademark was denied by the country’s Registro Nacional. The post was first spotted by a user on ResetEra.
In the process of our own reporting, Polygon received several documents from the lawyer representing Super Mario owner Jose Mario Alfaro González confirming his story. Nintendo did not respond to a request for comment.
González first applied for the Super Mario trademark in December 2013. It wasn’t until he tried to renew his trademark in March 2024, specifically registering the name “Super Mario” for use as a supplier of canasta básica, a local designation for essentials like rice, beans, and coffee, that Nintendo first appeared to take notice. An agent representing Nintendo of America — whose office, records indicate, regularly handles trademarking the company’s intellectual property in Costa Rica — filed an official opposition to González’s trademark with the Registro Nacional in July 2024.
The opposition filed on Nintendo’s behalf cited three main issues, claiming the Super Mario grocery store sold more than just canasta básica and only used that classification to cover up its imitation, used images of Mario from the Super Mario franchise to promote itself on Facebook, and had prior knowledge of Mario and the Super Mario franchise due to its stocking of products featuring Super Mario characters.
González’s lawyer argued the Super Mario grocery store firmly operates within its chosen specification as a supplier of canasta básica (a category for which Nintendo doesn’t own the Super Mario trademark) and never promoted Nintendo of America products (a cursory search by Polygon revealed many of the Super Mario video game toys posted to the store’s Facebook page to be unofficial bootlegs). He also pointed out the use of “super” in Costa Rica as slang for “supermarket” rather than as a superlative, as in the case of the Super Mario franchise.
After review, a legal advisor with the Registro Nacional concluded in November 2024 the opposition raised by Nintendo of America’s representative had no merit. The agency officially accepted González’s trademark renewal a month later. Nintendo is able to appeal this decision but there’s no indication it has done or will do so at the time of writing.
Many online considered the Super Mario grocery store saga a modern David and Goliath situation, celebrating the little guy’s victory over a multi-billion dollar corporation. Nintendo has in recent years become known for its tenacious litigation, mostly against those who facilitate emulation of its video games but also in defense of its patents, as in the case of Pokémon clone Palworld. Right or wrong, the famously family-friendly Nintendo is seen today as something of a bully, though the long-awaited reveal of the Switch 2 has quieted those conversations somewhat.
As for González, he just seems happy to be able to run his supermarket as he has for over a decade, Super Mario name and all.
