On December 9, 2020, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released an administrative decision dated December 7, 2020 punishing Shanghai Xuenai Trademark Office (General Partnership) (上海雪耐商标事务所（普通合伙)) and employees for forging official trademark documents.   Xuenai had forged 126 documents defrauding 100 companies and 6 individuals. Apparently, Xuenai would use the fraudulent documents to solicit business by sending the documents to trademark applicants and registrants over WeChat and QQ (Chinese social media apps).

Xuenai was banned from filing new trademark applications while the Supervisor, Wu, was fined 100,000 RMB (~$15,000 USD) and issued a warning. Two related employees were also given fines and a warning.  Wu was also criminally prosecuted and found guilty of  forging or altering official documents of state organs and fraud although the penalty was not disclosed.

The headers of the forged or altered documents read “Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce” and used the original official document format of the Trademark Office. Xuenai filled in false content. The conclusion of the documents were printed in red with “Trademark Office of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce of the People’s Republic of China.” There are 126 sealed documents in total, all of which are forged or altered to look like they came from the Trademark Office.