Sentence:  According to this saga of intellectual-property misanthropy, these creatures [patent trolls] roam the business world, buying up patents and then using them to demand extravagant payouts from companies they accuse of infringing them. Often, their <WSD>victims</WSD> pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Anyone who is harmed by another.