- WWE issued a press release today saying that the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York today clarified that its dismissal of WWE’s amended complaint in the lawsuit against Jakks Pacific does not include WWE’s state law claims, which will now be transferred to and heard in the state court action between the parties. WWE sued Jakks, THQ, Stanley Shenker & Associates, Inc., and Bell Licensing, LLC., alleging that on the orders of Jakks’ highest ranking officers, payments were made to Shenker secretly via a series of transactions involving foreign subsidiaries of Jakks during the time licensing rights were being sought, including the right to WWE lucrative videogame license. Stanley Shenker and James Bell pleaded guilty already and are currently in jail. In the federal case, the Jakks defendants argued that a release, given to it after a royalty audit of the toy license, operated to somehow preclude WWE from pursuing its state law claims. Today, Judge Kenneth Karas indicated that he found that the release specifically did not bar any of these claims. WWE, Jakks and THQ still do business together when it comes to releasing popular action figures and best-selling video games despite the pending lawsuit.