Conclusion first: an SMS signature is not "whatever you want to be called." Under the real-name management requirements of the MIIT and carriers, a signature must satisfy the three principles of "authenticity, specificity, and uniqueness." Major providers such as Tencent Cloud and Alibaba Cloud currently accept only three types of signatures: company names, government/public-institution/other-organization names, and trademark names. To use a brand name as a signature, the prerequisite is that the brand is already a registered trademark searchable on the China Trademark Office website; a TM mark at the application stage cannot pass review; where the signature belongs to another company, a commissioned authorization letter must also be provided.
1. Why SMS Signature Review Is So Strict
- SMS signatures follow the "authenticity, specificity, and uniqueness" principles required by the MIIT and must uniquely and specifically identify the SMS content provider;
- After the provider's review, the signature must also be submitted to the carrier (China Mobile/Unicom/Telecom) for real-name filing, which takes an average of 5–7 working days, and for some carriers 7–10 working days or longer;
- Passing review does not mean forever: providers monitor actual sent content, and accounts are frozen for violations, with unused package balances no longer usable.
2. Only Three Types of Signatures Can Be Applied For Now
Per Tencent Cloud's announcement on signature rule updates, SMS signatures support only the following three types:
- Company (recommended): the full company name must exactly match the business license; an abbreviation must be continuously contained in the full licensed name, unconfusable and non-duplicative with other enterprises — including a regional attribute is recommended, e.g., "Beijing ABC Tech" is better than "ABC Tech";
- Government/public institution/other organization: the name must exactly match the certificate;
- Trademark: the trademark must be registered and searchable on the CNIPA China Trademark Office website.
Signatures of types such as apps, mini programs, Official Accounts, and websites are no longer supported. Even existing signatures of those types that were previously filed successfully are likely to be intercepted by carriers — switch to a compliant signature as soon as possible. Alibaba Cloud's standard is consistent: the signature should be an enterprise/institution name or a registered trademark name; vague neutral signatures are not supported.
3. Specific Requirements for Trademark-Based Signatures
- Must be registered: the trademark must be registered and searchable on the China Trademark Office website. Alibaba Cloud is explicit: trademarks at preliminary examination, publication, or other unfinished registration stages cannot serve as a signature source; rejections citing "trademark information not verified" require waiting until registration completes before resubmitting;
- Exact name match: the signature name must exactly match the name on the registration certificate (including Chinese/English and case); adding or dropping characters, truncating, or appending suffixes such as "organizer" or "member" is not supported;
- Network-wide uniqueness: where the same trademark is registered by multiple enterprises and lacks network-wide uniqueness, carrier filing may fail, and the provider may require adding enterprise information to distinguish, e.g., "Company A abc" — specifics follow the carrier's actual review;
- Entity consistency: the trademark registrant must match the entity associated with the signature's qualifications; if the trademark is in another company's name, the "use by others" process applies with a commissioned authorization letter;
- Individually owned trademarks: trademarks registered in an individual's name can also be used to apply for a signature, but the corresponding authorization and qualification materials required by the provider must be provided.
4. Materials Checklist: Own Use and Use by Others
Own-use signature (the signature's owning entity matches the account's real-name verified entity):
- Business license and other entity documents;
- For trademark-based signatures additionally: trademark number, a full screenshot of the trademark information on the China Trademark Office website (including the complete domain address), and the trademark registration certificate.
Use-by-others signature (the signature belongs to another enterprise):
- The business license of the signature-owning party (note: not your own company's);
- Commissioned authorization letter: Tencent Cloud requires its standard template, and Alibaba Cloud has a dedicated authorization letter template; it is strongly recommended to authorize all potentially needed signatures at once in the letter to avoid repeated supplementation later.
General requirements for supporting documents: must be original images (red seal), valid and unaltered, in jpg/jpeg/png format, each no larger than 5MB.
5. Common Reasons for Signature Rejection
- Neutralized signatures: signatures like "test," "verification code," "notice," "customer service notice," or "kind reminder" that cannot identify the owning company are rejected outright;
- Non-compliant signature type: applying for mini program, Official Account, website, or app signatures — intercepted as not meeting the carriers' latest requirements;
- Trademark status mismatch: applying with a TM mark or a trademark under preliminary examination publication — rejected as "trademark information not verified";
- Name inconsistency: signature not exactly matching the registration certificate name (including case), or the trademark lacking uniqueness without supplementary enterprise information;
- Materials mismatch: supporting documents not matching the signature type — a use-by-others signature submitting the wrong party's business license or missing the authorization letter;
- Format errors: copies without company seals, authorization letters not filled per the template, expired or altered documents.
6. Practical Recommendations
- File the trademark application as soon as the brand name is set. SMS signatures recognize only registered trademarks, and registration typically takes about 7–9 months from application to approval — trademark layout must run ahead of the business launch; before applying, get a trademark registrability assessment to confirm it can be registered, avoiding the sequence of "signature waiting on trademark, business waiting on signature";
- If you need to launch urgently, first apply for a signature using the full company name or a compliant abbreviation for testing and transition, then apply for the trademark-based signature once the trademark registers;
- Where the trademark has been assigned, changed, or renewed, keep the corresponding proofs ready so the chain of rights status is clear;
- Where many companies share the trademark name, proactively adopt a combined "enterprise name + trademark name" signature to improve the carrier filing pass rate;
- Keep the number of signatures within a reasonable range (Tencent Cloud caps 6 per account), with corresponding qualification documents for each signature.
7. Summary
The essence of SMS signature review is confirming "who you are" for every message: company-name signatures rely on the business license, trademark signatures on the registration certificate, and use-by-others signatures on the authorization letter — three materials corresponding to three rights, and missing any one means rejection. The platform rules cited in this article are current as of 2026; platform review standards change frequently, so always defer to the platforms' latest official rules before proceeding.