When you hear about court cases, you often think of some of the worst crimes being tried there. Or, it can be incredibly personal, like divorces, restraining orders, etc. But, on the other hand, you don’t typically think of the video game industry getting involved in the courts. The rare exceptions are usually about copyrights of items or the use of cheating software in video games despite the publishers saying that such software isn’t allowed in their titles. But today, we’re talking about a “next-level” case involving two companies fighting over the rights to the video game and one getting caught in the cookie jar. Specifically, the cookie jar of Cooking Mama!
Let’s rewind for now. Cooking Mama started as a casual cooking game where you’d cook with “mama” to make all sorts of dishes. It was simple and fun, and it sold well. The team behind the franchise was Office Create. However, they got into a dispute with fellow creator Planet Entertainment over the rights to the game’s name. So, in defiance of Office Create, the team at Planet Entertainment made Cooking Mama: Cookstar. A title that came out for the Nintendo Switch and PS4.
Office Create took Planet Entertainment to court for this in 2020, and the International Chamber of Commerce ruled in favor of Office Create for multiple reasons. Not the least of which was they still owned the rights to the game’s name, and thus any title released without their permission was illegal. But, as the team noted in a statement, the game didn’t meet their standards regarding the quality of the title.
With the ruling on their side, they’re doing everything they can to remove the illegal title from gaming markets, thus ensuring that Planet Entertainment can’t profit anymore from their brand.
“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.”
So that got pretty intense, wouldn’t you say? It shows you how important the rights to IP are and why they fight to keep them. We can’t say whether the franchise will continue after this. But we can say that if it does, it’ll be through Office Create.
Source: Nintendo Everything
