Publisher Planet Entertainment is currently being sued by Office Create, the IP holder of Cooking Mama, for the unauthorized sale of Cooking Mama: Cookstar. The dispute between the Cooking Mama: Cookstar publisher and IP holder is not new and started back in 2020, just before the game's release.
At the time, Office Create said that the game wasn't good enough and that Planet Entertainment released Cooking Mama: Cookstar without permission. Additionally, Office Create also accused Planet Entertainment of marketing an unapproved PS4 version of Cooking Mama: Cookstar and subsequently canceled its license in March 2020. Despite the cancelation of the agreement, the publisher continued to sell the Nintendo Switch version of Cooking Mama: Cookstar, and Office Create sued Planet Entertainment and its CEO, Steve Grossman.
On October 3, 2022, the International Chamber of Commerce ruled in favor of Office Create. The court found Mr. Grossman and Planet Entertainment guilty of selling unlicensed copies of Cooking Mama: Cookstar for both the Switch and PlayStation 4. This was a clear violation of copyright law and the court ordered them to stop selling the game immediately. The ICC arbitration court asked Planet Entertainment and Mr. Grossman to refrain from such activities in the future. Furthermore, the court ordered Planet Entertainment to pay damages.
This is likely a huge blow to Planet Entertainment as not only was the Cooking Mama franchise a big part of its business, but the series' popularity in the past has been a major driver of the company's success. Now, Planet Entertainment has to find a way to come back from this potentially tough situation. The company's current strategy appears to be focused on short-term gains, and it will be interesting to see how the company responds in the future. Planet Entertainment may consider introducing a brand-new cooking game similar to Cooking Mama: Cookstar to overcome the ongoing crisis.
Office Create is now attempting to remove all physical and digital copies of Cooking Mama: Cookstar from the market. This is unfortunate for the Cooking Mama franchise, and it may disappoint many fans all over the world. Cooking Mama is considered by many to be one of the best cooking games available out there. Fans can only hope that Office Create finds a new publisher and brings the franchise back eventually. It's great that this ruling was made in favor of intellectual property rights holders. It sends a strong message to anyone who would violate those rights and hopefully will deter future violations.
Source: Nintendo Life
