The couple are suing the Seattle-based Internet Entertainment Group for distributing their "honeymoon tape" on video, CD-Rom and in hotel rooms.

They insist they only gave permission for the tape to be relayed on the company's Internet site.

But IEG's attorney Alan Isaacman said an out-of-court settlement the couple signed in 1997 provided for the tape to be distributed through different formats.

Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson in happier days: She filed for divorce in February

Already, 200,000 copies of the video have been sold across the US - making it the country's biggest-selling adult video ever.

Now District Judge Dean Pregerson has said he will probably throw out the $90m (£56m) lawsuit against the firm.

He added that the couple never asked for the return of the video, which they claim was stolen from a safe in their Malibu home.

The couple married in 1995, but Anderson filed for divorce shortly after Lee attacked her in February 1998.

He was jailed in May for the attack, and now claims to have cleaned up his ways after taking counselling sessions.