The Federal Trade Commission under President Obama was derelict in its duty to protect the intellectual-property rights of a company whose technology helped vault Apple to a nearly $600 billion company – and that same negligence continues to this day, Tea Party Patriots Co-Founder Jenny Beth Martin writes in a recent column.

The Washington Examiner has the details:

That’s exactly what is happening in the case of an Apple-backed “anti-trust” suit designed to help the company avoid paying for the intellectual property it uses in the iPhone. Apple is engaged in a world-wide legal campaign against its suppliers, particularly Qualcomm, in an attempt to avoid paying full freight for the intellectual property that powers the iPhone. This despite the fact that Apple’s recent earnings report indicated the company has a quarter-trillion dollars in cash largely stored overseas to avoid taxes.

In the case of Qualcomm, Apple is required to pay for the rights to use the technology that backs 4G – essentially what makes the iPhone an iPhone rather than the iPod Touch, a product that sells for hundreds of dollars less.

Apple – the most valuable and, arguably, most powerful company in the world – is claiming that it’s being bullied by big bad Qualcomm. The company, which may be on its way to charging $1,000 per phone, according to some reports, has launched a global regulatory campaign to fight back against Qualcomm’s supposedly excessive licensing fees, which some analysts have estimated to be as low as $15 per phone. The success of Apple phones owes quite a bit to the technology developed by Qualcomm, which helped revolutionize the smartphone by creating the technology that turns an iPod into a fully functional iPhone.

Intellectual-property rights are the bedrock of our economy and for our government to send the message that big companies can get away with paying less than “full freight,” as Jenny Beth says, for intellectual property undermines individual rights and discourages the same innovation that gave rise to the iPhone. Click here to get involved and help Tea Party Patriots push back against those in authority who abuse their power!