PHILADELPHIA — Bill Cosby’s lawyers urged an appeals court Wednesday to reseal the comedian’s lurid, decade-old testimony about his womanizing, but the panel of judges seemed to think the request was pointless, since the deposition has already made headlines around the world.

Members of the three-judge panel of the Third US Circuit of Appeals reeled off a list of metaphors to suggest that any damage to Cosby’s reputation from the release of the testimony has already been done.

Cosby’s attorneys hope a ruling in their favor could help them keep the documents from being used in the criminal case against him in Pennsylvania and in the many lawsuits filed around the country by women who accuse him of sexual assault or defamation.

But the judges questioned that strategy, too.

The other courts ‘‘don’t have to necessarily follow us. We can’t control them,’’ Circuit Judge Thomas L. Ambro said.

Cosby gave the testimony in 2005 as part of a lawsuit brought against him by Andrea Constand, a Temple University employee who said he drugged and molested her at his home.

Associated Press