May 20, 2014

Nintendo of Canada has announced that they will celebrate the launch of Mario Kart 8 by giving fans a chance to play the game this Saturday, before the game is released next week. The special previews will take place at select Best Buy stores across Canada. The celebration will continue with special karting events in Toronto and Montreal on Saturday, May 31.

“Mario Kart 8 will drive players wild with fun, challenging tracks, new playable characters and its anti-gravity feature which will flip kart racing on its head,” said Ron Bertram, Nintendo of Canada’s vice-president and general manager. “Nintendo of Canada is sharing in the excitement of Mario Kart 8 by giving fans a chance to play the game before it launches at select Best Buy stores and at Mario’s Canadian Karting Day events hosted in Toronto and Montreal on launch weekend.”

On Saturday, May 24, these locations will kick Mario Kart 8 into high gear with hands-on demonstrations from 12pm to 4pm. The first 50 players at the store in Toronto and Montreal will receive a voucher to a local karting track for a free race. Additional giveaways will be available for the duration of the retail events, while supplies last.

Nintendo announced on Monday that the company has won a patent infringement case in a U.S. District Court in Texas. The case was brought in February 2009 by Wall Wireless, LLC, which claimed that the Nintendo DS and Nintendo DSi systems infringed a patent. Wall Wireless is a company whose primary business is enforcing patents. The court dismissed the case on May 19th, 2014, after the United States Patent and Trademark Office canceled all the patent claims Wall Wireless was relying on in its case.

This dismissal follows a decision by the Japanese Patent Office, which also found that Nintendo’s products do not infringe Wall’s Japanese patents.

“We are very pleased to see the U.S. case dismissed, and also to have the Japanese Patent Office confirm that Nintendo does not infringe Wall’s Japanese patents,” said Richard Medway, Nintendo of America’s vice president and deputy general counsel. “Nintendo vigorously defends patent lawsuits and other proceedings when we believe we have not infringed another party’s patents. It does not matter where such cases are filed or if it takes more than five years to vindicate our position. Nintendo continues to develop unique and innovative products while respecting the intellectual property rights of others.”

Nintendo of Canada Revs Up Fans for Mario Kart 8

Nintendo Patent Infringement Case Dismissed