TOKYO: A Japanese court ordered a go-kart rental firm on Wednesday to pay 50 million yen in damages to Nintendo Co. for violating the video game maker's intellectual property rights.

The Intellectual Property High Court sharply raised the damages amount from 10 million yen ordered by Tokyo District Court's ruling in 2018.

The company, Mari Mobility Development Inc., offers tourists, mainly those from abroad, the experience of riding a go-kart on public roads while wearing costumes of characters from Nintendo's popular game series Mario Kart.

In the high court on Wednesday, Judge Yoshiyuki Mori, who presided over the trial, said that the game and its characters are well known and have a strong power to attract customers, and that the company intentionally made unauthorized use of them.

The high court fully banned the company from using "Maricar" and other words or marks related to the Nintendo game in advertising or on go-karts.

The district court had allowed the company to use the word Maricar on foreign-language websites.

Following the high court ruling, Nintendo issued a comment that it will continue to take necessary steps against any breaches of its intellectual property rights.

Mari Mobility Development said in a statement that the court's rejection of its claims was regrettable.

JIJI Press