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 <WSD>infringing</WSD> them. Often, their victims pay up rather than face the costs of a legal battle. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Break or violate a treaty, a law, a right etc.