Two academics at NYU Law School have released a fascinating paper about fake specimens of use in US trademark applications. The article says:
… with respect to use-based applications originating in China that were filed at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 2017 solely for apparel goods, we estimate that 66.9% of such applications included fraudulent specimens. Yet 59.8% of these fraudulent applications proceeded to publication and then 38.9% proceeded to registration.
The reason that I learned about this paper is that (a) I am subscribed to the e-Trademarks listserv and (b) alert listserv member John L. Welch posted a link to this paper on that listserv. Thank you John!