WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court seems likely to find that the judges who oversee patent disputes are not properly appointed. The question the justices debated Monday has to do with more than 250 administrative patent judges. But it could also potentially affect more than 100 other similarly-appointed government officials who issue more than 85,000 decisions annually. The court’s conservative justices suggested that the judges’ appointment is problematic. Justice Brett Kavanaugh said during arguments that the decisions the judges make are “multi-million, sometimes billion-dollar, decisions being made not by someone who’s accountable in the usual way” required by the Constitution’s Appointments Clause.
