Nickelodeon & Viacom Consumer Products has reassigned US master toy licensing rights for its premier US$6.3-billion property SpongeBob SquarePants to Jakks Pacific. This is the fourth such agreement announced by the toyco in the last 30 days (in the past few weeks it’s picked up master deals for Fancy Nancy, Neopets and Discovery Kids).

Jakks plans to launch its first SpongeBob line with collectible micro-figures and plush products based on his Squareness and other characters from the series in 2008 to lead into the property’s 10th anniversary in 2009. The toyco plans to follow up the initial assortment with playsets, preschool toys, youth electronics, water toys and novelty item.

SpongeBob SquarePants, the series, continues to dominate Nielsen ratings for kids two to 11; it’s been the number-one toon for the demo for the past six years and currently draws approximately 64.5 million viewers a month in the US.