Cooking Mama IP Holder sues Planet Entertainment over the sale of Cooking Mama: Cookstar

Remember the ongoing dispute between Cooking Mama: publisher Cookstar Planet Entertainment and rights holder of the 2020 Office Create series? Well, in an update, Planet has now been sued by Office Create.

There was actually a fallout between the two parties before the game was released in 2020, but Planet Entertainment went ahead and released the game worldwide in both digital and physical form. Intellectual property holder Office Create at the time released an official statement, calling it “unauthorized distribution”.

It looks like the International Chamber of Commerce has finally sided with Office Create – acknowledging how the release of Cooking Mama: Cookstar violates intellectual property rights. Office Create is now seeking to remove all remaining physical copies from the marketplace. The digital copies have apparently already been removed from sale.

Here is a rough translation of Office Create’s latest update, via its official website:

Thank you very much for your sponsorship of the “Cooking Mama” series.

As we reported to you in April 2020, Planet Entertainment LLC (headquartered in Connecticut, USA; hereafter referred to as “Planet”) violated our license agreement and we released the Nintendo Switch version of Cooking Mama : Cookstar, which did not meet quality standards, without our permission, and started sales activities in North America, Europe and Australia. Additionally, in the United States and Europe, we began advertising for the sale of the Sony PlayStation 4 version of “Cooking Mama: Cookstar”, which we had not granted in our licensing agreement first. venue. 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, outside of Asia. It’s time to start.

As such, we have personally sued Planet and its CEO Steve Grossman in the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) for the unauthorized production and production of the Switch and PlayStation 4 versions of Cooking Mama: Cookstar. We had filed a request for arbitration requesting a ban on sales, etc., and on October 3, 2022, the ICC Court of Arbitration issued a final decision.

In this final award, the ICC Court of Arbitration found that Planet and Mr. Grossman lacked the authority to manufacture and sell “Cooking Mama: Cookstar” for the Switch and PlayStation 4 versions, and that the ” Cooking Mama: Unauthorized Cookstar a In addition, the ICC Arbitral Tribunal barred Planet and Mr. Grossman from any action that would mislead the company due to intellectual property rights infringement, d unfair competition, etc.

In order to protect the important assets of “Cooking Mama” series and win the patronage of our customers, we have taken all legal measures to withdraw “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 Cooking Mama customers due to the illegal acts of Planet and Mr. Grossman.

You can read more about this long history in our previous Nintendo Life coverage: