It´s one of the few properties that benefits the struggling Atari, and now the publisher may lose the license.

Beleaguered publisher Atari, the U.S. subsidiary of French games company Infogrames, has revealed in a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that it´s in danger of losing its video game license to the popular anime franchise Dragon Ball Z.

Atari´s financial situation has been quite shaky and Infogrames has repeatedly blamed the U.S. unit for dragging down its bottom line. Infogrames recently overhauled the board at Atari and named a new chief restructuring officer to oversee the company´s plan to return to profitability.

Dragon Ball Online Gold has certainly been one of the publisher´s more important franchises from a financial standpoint. Atari raked in 85 million on Dragon Ball Online Gold during its 2005 fiscal year.

Now, however, FUNimation believes Atari has breached its agreement pertaining to Dragon Ball Online Gold. " FUNimation delivered a notice purporting to terminate the license agreements based on alleged breaches of the license agreements. [Atari] disputes the validity of the termination notices and has continued to distribute the titles covered by the license agreements," Atari stated in its SEC filing. "FUNimation and the Company are currently in discussions regarding a ´standstill´ agreement that would permit them to discuss and attempt to resolve the issues under the license agreements that resulted in FUNimation delivering the purported termination notice."

Atari can ill afford to lose one of the few lucrative franchises they have. The company noted that "there is no assurance that the parties will agree on the terms of the standstill or that they will be able to successfully resolve the issues under the license agreements" and admitted that "in the event that FUNimation is successful in terminating the license agreements it could have a material adverse effect on the Company?s results of operations and financial position."