Mealey's (January 15, 2021, 12:26 PM EST) -- WASHINGTON, D.C. — In its Jan. 11 order list, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the U.S. government’s motion for divided argument in upcoming oral arguments in a combined appeal over whether administrative patent judges (APJs) in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s (PTO’s) Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) constitute principal officers and, thus, must be appointed by the president under the U.S. Constitution’s appointments clause....