Cooking Mama’s creator, Office Create, has sued Planet Entertainment over a variety of concerns relating to Cooking Mama: Cookstar.
The two businesses were fighting over the title at the time of the game’s release. Cooking Mama: Cookstar was released against the company’s wishes, according to Office Create. Further, Office Create thought it did not satisfy quality requirements, thus a PS4 version was promoted despite the fact that it was not part of the original license deal.
Planet Entertainment was eventually brought to court, where it was sued. Cooking Mama: Cookstar infringed on intellectual property rights, according to the International Chamber of Commerce, which found in favor of Office Create, which was also facing a sales restriction. In addition, Office Create is pursuing all legal steps to remove the title off the market.
Office Create statement
Dear Sir, Thank you very much for your patronage of the “Cooking Mama” series.
As we reported to you in April 2020, Planet Entertainment LLC (headquartered in Connecticut, USA; hereinafter referred to as “Planet”) violated our license agreement and we released the Nintendo Switch version of Cooking Mama: Cookstar, which did not meet the quality standards, without our permission, and started sales activities in North America, Europe, and Australia. In addition, in the United States and Europe, we began advertising the sale of the Sony PlayStation 4 version of “Cooking Mama: Cookstar,” which we did not grant in our license agreement in the first place. In response, on March 30, 2020, we notified Planet of the immediate termination of the license agreement and immediately prohibited the use of our intellectual property rights related to “Cooking Mama.”
Despite this, Planet continues to sell the Nintendo Switch version of “Cooking Mama: Cookstar” without our permission, and even sells the Sony PlayStation 4 version of “Cooking Mama: Cookstar” worldwide, excluding Asia. It’s time to start.
As such, we have sued Planet and its CEO Steve Grossman personally before the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) International Court of Arbitration for the unauthorized production and production of the Switch and PlayStation 4 versions of Cooking Mama: Cookstar. We had filed for arbitration proceedings seeking a ban on sales, etc., and on October 3, 2022, the ICC Arbitration Court made a final ruling.
In this final ruling, the ICC Arbitration Court found that Planet and Mr. Grossman did not have the authority to manufacture and sell “Cooking Mama: Cookstar” for both the Switch and PlayStation 4 versions, and that the unauthorized “Cooking Mama : Cookstar has been found to infringe our intellectual property rights. In addition, the ICC arbitration court prohibited Planet and Mr. Grossman from any act that misleads the company on the grounds of intellectual property rights infringement, unfair competition, etc. Ordered to pay damages.
In order to protect the “Cooking Mama” series, which is an important asset, and to gain the patronage of our customers, we have taken all legal measures to remove “Cooking Mama: Cookstar” manufactured and sold by Planet from the market. We sincerely apologize for the great confusion and inconvenience caused to our long-time patrons of Cooking Mama due to the illegal acts of Planet and Mr. Grossman.
It’s worth mentioning that Cooking Mama: Cookstar is currently unavailable on the Switch eShop. It’s conceivable that there are still actual copies floating around.
