Patent Cases Need Broad Scope for High Court Invite, Lawyers Say

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent rejection of several patent petitions underscores that the justices tend to accept cases that have a broader impact than the issues that regularly arise in patent litigation.

The justices Oct. 7 denied eight petitions covering matters such as a patent office rule on reopening examinations, a $506 million infringement lawsuit against Apple Inc. by the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s licensing unit, and whether claims in cybersecurity-related patents should have been invalidated for being abstract.

There’s no secret formula for convincing the justices to grant any petition when the vast majority are denied. But attorneys say that ...