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 victims pay up rather than face the <WSD>costs</WSD> of a legal battle. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Amount of money, time, etc. that is required or used.