With the significance of patents in the online turf wars exploding, no one can afford to be too passive in asserting rights.

FORBES: AOL Loses $10 Million Patent Infringement Lawsuit

And who is to stop YSL, which declares it pioneered the monochrome design, from trumping the whole foot wear design industry by asserting rights to the single color shoe concept in all shades?

FORBES: Louboutin Wins Protection For Red, But Don't Try To Grab Blue Just Yet

The Ghanaian government denounced the deal from the beginning, asserting its rights to make its own preemptive bid for Kosmos.

FORBES: ExxonMobil: In Or Out Of Africa?

NASCAR, asserting its rights to images of everything that occurs at any NASCAR race, had the video taken down as a copyright violation.

FORBES: NASCAR's YouTube Problem

Apple asserting that it owns exclusive rights to those generic design features runs counter to what patents and patent law were intended to do.

FORBES: Apple v. Samsung: The Rights To Rectangles

Labor unions lobbied Clinton to issue the new rules before leaving office, asserting they would put pressure on companies that do business with the federal government to protect worker rights.

CNN: Clinton contracting rules opposed by business