It's being reported today by Reuters that in an unusual joint effort, Apple Inc and its frequent court opponent, patent plaintiff (and patent troll) Uniloc, persuaded a U.S. appeals court on Wednesday to allow them to keep the terms of Uniloc's patent licenses secret for now.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said a San Francisco judge overstated the value of the public's interest in the information when he ruled for digital-rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and denied Uniloc's motion to seal the records.

In a split decision, the appeals court sent the dispute back for District Judge William Alsup to reconsider for a second time.

Circuit Judge Alan Lourie wrote Wednesday that Alsup failed to follow the Federal Circuit's instructions, and should not have ruled that the public has a broad right to patent-licensing information.

The appeals court ordered Alsup to make more specific determinations about whether the information constituted trade secrets or should be sealed for another reason.

An EFF spokesperson said in a statement that the decision "flies in the face of the public's constitutional right to access judicial records."