Bid to Flip Apple Ruling Seeks to Check Patent Court’s Power

A bid to revive a $506 million judgment against Apple Inc. could help set boundaries on how far the nation’s top patent court can go in reviewing lower court decisions.

The University of Wisconsin’s patent and licensing arm is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit’s ruling that Apple didn’t infringe the group’s computer-processing patent with its iPhone and iPad chips. The Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, or WARF, claims the three-judge panel overstepped its authority by deciding the case as if it were a trial court and jury.

Intellectual property attorneys ...