Whether administrative patent judges are principal or inferior officers under the Appointments Clause

QUESTIONS PRESENTED 1. Whether, for purposes of the Appointments Clause, U.S. Const. art. II, § 2, cl. 2, administrative patent judges of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office are principal officers who must be appointed by the President with the Senate’s advice and consent, or “inferior Officers” whose appointment Congress has permissibly appointed in a department head. 2. Whether the court of appeals erred by allowing a patent owner that did not present an Appointments Clause challenge to the agency, and that acquiesced in the appointment of the same administrative patent judges in a related matter, to nonetheless present such challenges on appeal.