If your game carries a name that a person may have, can it be trademarked(and exclusive to you)? I wonder why Nintendo never ran into any trouble with Mario yet, since anyone with that legal name can base their product off of it.
well honestly i dont know why anyone would make a different kind of game with the same name "mario" its not really the name that is there problem, its the charater itself that they run into problems with
So even if your name is Mario, you can not make a game that uses Mario's character art style that Nintendo has protected via Trademarks and Copyrights.
If you make a soccer game with a star soccer player I.E. "Mario Stanic" or hockey star "Mario Trembly". It is possible that you could get away with "Mario's Soccer Game" or "Mario's Hockey Game". If Nintendo has not already tied that up. You can always try and fight in court $$$'s.
It's going to be difficult to trademark just a name with out art work. So Nintendo actually is protecting the art associated with Mario not the name. Think of it this way. The name references the Artwork that is Nintendo's Mario.
You can not Trademark the name "Super" but if you add "Man" then you can trademark that along with the art work that shows how your character will look.
