University of California, already feeling the pinch from a court ruling requiring it to disclose detailed information about the performance of venture capital investments, has asked an appeals court to overturn the earlier ruling.

An Alameda County Superior Court judge ruled July 24 that the information should be made public under state open-records laws. UC attorneys later asked the judge to reconsider that ruling, but he stood by his order.

In a petition filed Friday in the California Court of Appeal in San Francisco, UC said disclosing the information will limit its chances to invest in venture capital partnerships. University officials said the confidential internal rates of return they are being asked to reveal are trade secrets of the private consultants who calculated the investments, and they risk being excluded from future investments in the funds.

Officials said the ruling has already had an impact. On Aug. 27, Sequoia Capital, the nation's oldest venture capital firm, excluded the university from its latest fund and asked UC to sell its holdings in 10 other funds.

As of July 30, UC's assets totaled $53.25 billion, with $646 million in private equity.