Los Angeles Judge Fernando Olguin dismissed the suit, including on statute of limitations, according to the document.
Lawyers for Mr Elden said on Saturday he would appeal the decision.
At the end of August 2021, a month before the 30th anniversary of the release of the album, Spencer Elden, now thirty, had filed a first complaint, followed by a second in January 2022 after a first rejection for other reasons, in claiming to be a victim of "commercial exploitation of child pornography images".
Photographed in 1991 at the age of four months, Spencer Elden appears naked in a swimming pool on the cover of Nevermind, the gaze eyeing a dollar bill on a hook.
With legendary titles like "Smells Like Teen Spirit", the cult album has sold more than 30 million copies, becoming a rock reference.
The plaintiff, who said he never received financial compensation for the photo and assured that his parents had not given permission to use his image in this way, claimed 150,000 dollars in damages from each of the 15 people he was suing, including former Nirvana members, Kurt Cobain's executor, Courtney Love, and photographer, Kirk Weddle.
In a memorandum responding to the complaint and filed, their lawyers contended on the contrary that "Elden has spent three decades enjoying his fame as the self-proclaimed + baby Nirvana +".
"He's done the photo again for pay many times; he's had the album title +Nevermind+ tattooed on his chest...he's autographed copies of the album cover for sell them on eBay and he used that link to try to hit on women," they said.
Kirk Weddle, the photographer, was a friend of Spencer Elden's father, the family told NPR in 2008. They had hosted a pool party at which Spencer Elden was photographed underwater for the then-unknown group .
His parents were paid $200 for this picture.
© 2022 AFP