Jakks Pacific recently notified World Wrestling Entertainment Inc that they intended to excercise its option to renew the WWE videogame license, which is set to expire on December 31, 2009 for another five years. The option is a joint venture between THQ and Jakks Pacific.

THQ has answered this by filing a lawsuit in California Superior Court in Los Angeles County stating they are not ready to make such a decision and Jakks was not authorized to unilaterally issue the renewal notice. THey also state that THQ has no obligation to consent to the renewal of the license and the restrictive covenant in the joint venture agreement prohibiting THQ from publishing any videogames based on wrestling during the term of the joint venture agreement (expiring one year after termination of the WWE license) is unenforceable under California law.

According to Jakks, they have already initiated arbitration proceedings relating to these issues.