Nintendo—a company that's famously litigious when it comes to muscling down on fan projects, emulators, and sometimes just straight-up other games—took one to the chin recently after a supermarket in Costa Rica, named «Super Mario» after its owner Don José Mario Alfaro González, won a legal battle to keep its branding.
As posted to the supermarket's Facebook page (via Eurogamer) by Mario's son, Carlos «Charlito» Alfaro, Nintendo reportedly «claimed that Super Mario belongs to them globally» when the supermarket attempted to file for a renewal on its trademarked name.
The supermarket itself was, according to the page, founded around 52 years ago by Don Mario—however, it hadn't registered itself as a brand until 2013, when Alfaro returned from university.
Outside of the legal system of registering brands and trademarks, that'd put the supermarket's creation at around 12 years before the first Super Mario Bros.
game released in 1985. It even predates Mario's first appearance as «Jumpman» in the Donkey Kong arcade game, released in 1981.