A motion by Apple to prevent 11 third-party app developers from being sued by patent holder Lodsys has been thrown out of court after it was deemed to be no longer relevant.

Judge Rodney Gilstrap in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas threw out the case, on the grounds that Apple’s claims are no longer relevant because all of the developers involved have now settled with Lodsys.

The patent holder began to offer out-of-court settlements in 2011 to small developers it alleged had infringed a patent it holds related to in-app purchases. It seems the 0.575 per cent of revenue demanded by Lodsys was deemed preferable to going to court by the developers.

Apple was given the go-ahead to play a role in the lawsuit between Lodsys and the app developers in April 2012, with the iPhone maker believing the activity of Lodsys threatened its developer community.

Apple based its challenge on the fact it had licensed the patent in question under terms that allowed it to pass these rights on to developers. Lodsys opposed these claims.

Lodsys started targeting iOS developers over in-app billing functionality in 2011, initially approaching small players before moving to larger publishers such as Rovio and EA. Reports suggested Lodsys also took action against Android and BlackBerry developers.

Lodsys said a year ago that more than 150 companies had licensed its in-app purchase technology, with more than 80 per cent doing so outside the litigation process.