infringed

[ in-frinjd ]

adjective

1. violated, transgressed, or encroached upon, as a regulation, restriction, or right:

   The costs of enforcing an infringed patent can be exceedingly high.

   He complained that CCTV was an ever more common security measure for which we all pay the price of infringed privacy.

2. illegally copied, distributed, or sold, as in contravention of a copyright or patent:

   A judge dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that the allegedly infringed material lacked the requisite originality.

3. relating to or being someone whose copyright, patent, etc., has been violated:

   When awarding damages, it must be considered how wealthy the infringed company could have been without the infringement.

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of infringe.

Other Words From

• un·in·fringed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of infringed¹

First recorded in 1590–1600; 1955–60 infringed fordef 2; infringe + -ed ² for the adjective senses; infringe + -ed ¹ for the verb sense

Example Sentences

Most of those claiming their written content has been infringed assert chiefly that the databases known to have been fed to some AI models are known to include their books or other writing.

From Los Angeles Times

The IPO said it engaged with major e-commerce stores to remove goods which infringed rights or were counterfit.

From BBC

It's important for atheists and non-Christians to speak up, because their rights are going to be more infringed upon by Christian supremacists.

From Salon

Renewable energy projects and, in some cases, agriculture have also infringed on their digs.

From Los Angeles Times

The law failed to pass constitutional muster, Roesch wrote, because it infringed on the power of the Legislature, explicitly granted by the state Constitution, to regulate compensation for workers’ injuries.

From Los Angeles Times