Apple Escapes Potential New Trial in $506 Million Patent Dispute

Apple Inc. dodged a new trial in a half-billion-dollar dispute over microprocessors when a federal judge denied a request the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s licensing arm first made nearly three years ago, seeking to pursue patent-infringement claims in two related lawsuits.

Judge William M. Conley denied the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation’s bid to reopen its claim of infringement under the doctrine of equivalents, in which a party can be held liable even when the disputed invention doesn’t fall within the literal scope of a patent claim.

Its “decision to abandon its doctrine of equivalents claim cannot be traced to ...