On June 8, 2021, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued "ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE" to a Chinese Intellectual Property Law Firm in Shenzhen. USPTO believed that the firm was engaged in trademark affairs without authorization and provided false third-party signatures in its trademark attorney practice.

Recently, USPTO announced on its website that Cotton, deputy commissioner in charge of trademark policy affairs, issued "ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE" to the representative of an IP law firm in Shenzhen, China. USPTO believes that the firm and its employees, agents, affiliated companies or managers had engaged in trademark affairs without authorization and provided false third-party signatures in their practice.

USPTO asked the IP firm to give reasonable reasons and reply by email before 5:00 pm (Eastern Time) on June 22, 2021. Otherwise, USPTO will impose sanctions. Failure to respond in time will lead to the implementation of some or all sanctions by USPTO.

According to the inquiry, the company claimed to have submitted tens of thousands of foreign trademark applications, and identified the photos of its staff as American lawyers. However, USPTO has no record of the firm as a qualified lawyer. USPTO believes that the firm had been engaged in extensive unauthorized legal affairs, including improperly entering other people's signatures and providing false, fictitious and fraudulent information in trademark applications. 

If the proposed sanctions is implemented against the firm, the information of the person in charge and all employees of the firm in the USPTO database and the trademark applications submitted through MyUSPTO account will be deleted, and the firm will be permanently prohibited from submitting trademark-related documents and using USPTO account. At present, the number of American trademarks handled by the firm has exceeded 14,000, a list of which having been attached by USPTO in document.