It’s been announced that Cooking Mama: Cookstar will be removed from the Nintendo Switch eShop and all other platforms, as developer Planet Entertainment no longer has the rights to publish Cooking Mama games. This is the final result of a legal battle beginning in March 2020, when Planet published Cooking Mama: Cookstar without the permission of Office Create, Cooking Mama’s parent company.
Evidently, Office Create had licensed Cooking Mama to Planet, but found that their efforts did not meet Office Create’s standards, and therefore did not approve of any official release. Now, the International Chamber of Commerce International Court of Arbitration has sided with Office Create, and ordered Planet to cease production of the game.
The Arbitral Tribunal has enjoined Planet and Mr. Grossman from selling, passing off, inducing, or enabling others to sell or pass off any product as a Cooking Mama product and/or otherwise suggesting any association/connection with Office Create or the Cooking Mama franchise. Office Create is undertaking all necessary steps to ensure that the infringing “Cooking Mama: Cookstar” video games (digital and physical copies) are removed from the market.
We thank our customers and loyal Cooking Mama fans for their continued support and sincerely regret any confusion and disappointment that has been caused by Planet’s and Mr. Grossman’s conduct.
The world of publishing rights can be pretty messy, but this seems like a pretty cut and dry case of intellectual property infringement. If you’ve got any interest in playing or owning Cooking Mama: Cookstar, you may want to seek out a copy now, as they probably won’t be around much longer.
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