The suit filed was in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles today.
Court documents accuse TMZ and Blatt of violation of privacy, copyright infringement, trademark infringement, violation of right to publicity and misappropriation of name and likeness.
A clip of the tape surfaced on gossip blog TMZ on Wednesday, the same day that SugarDVD CEO Jax made public a $100,000 offer to Troyer and his girlfriend for the rights to broadcast the tape.
Since then, several media outlets have named Blatt as brokering the tape, which Blatt denied to XBIZ today.
“I’m not the broker,” Blatt said in an online interview. “I never was — I merely shopped it. Now I am being sued for looking at it. When the real story comes out, Verne and his people will feel very foolish.”
Blatt was expectedly mum on the details of the sex tape deal, but did say that he has never been in possession of the tape and the video clip obtained by TMZ did not come from him.
“I was shopping it two weeks ago when I was under the pretense that both Ranae [the girlfriend] and Verne were behind it,” Blatt said.
“I learned last week he was not and, therefore, if I can't get releases I can't broker or sell anything,” he added.
He pointed out also that he has only dealt with celebrity sex tapes that have come from legitimate sources.
“Everyone knows that I only do legal sex tapes — I appear on TV shows and newspapers across the globe always speaking about sex tapes. I have helped Cameron Diaz and Colin Farrell get their videos off the web,” Blatt said. “Why would I shop something illegal?”
Blatt surmised that Troyer and his lawyers might be proceeding with legal action without knowing who possesses the tape. However, Blatt said that when he tells his side of the story, he is confident that he will be exonerated of the claims in the lawsuit.
“They are grabbing at straws and obviously doing their due diligence to find out who has the tape,” he said. “But they are barking up the wrong tree.”
According to media reports, when Troyer became aware that the tape had leaked onto TMZ his lawyers issued a cease-and-desist letter, which was ignored. The actor claims that the tape was never intended to be made public.
TMZ also had reported that SugarDVD had made the $100,000 offer to Troyer.
The suit is seeking damages, as well as unspecified legal fees and an injunction preventing the defendants from showing the video.
SugarDVD CEO Jax was unavailable for comment at press time, as were representatives from TMZ.
