An article describes the Six Sigma project that TRW’s law department conducted to reduce costs with the worldwide renewal process for certain of its trademarks. In 2002, “the average cost to renew a trademark, excluding processing costs, was $1,200 per registration.”
At TRW, “more than 2,000 secondary registrations and 500 tertiary registrations in 10 different classifications (stratification factors) and categories were being renewed each year [RWM $3 MM+ annually], and 40% of these classifications covered core business products.” Harriet Davidson, “Six Sigma in Corporate Law, ASQ Six Sigma Forum Mag., Nov. 30, 2004. Strikingly, the article states: “the value received from renewing these registrations for the existing businesses was negligible.”