The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently sounded an alarm about a scheme in which Chinese residents offer to pay U.S. lawyers to use their information in trademark filings, which could constitute the unauthorised practise of law. But in some cases, scammers in China and elsewhere are allegedly using attorneys’ signatures in trademark registration filings without permission.

In December, Miriam Paton, a registered Canadian patent agent who also happens to specialise in patent prosecution, filed a declaration with the USPTO after learning that her name and signature had been used in “several hundred trademark applications” in the U.S.