Other forms: infringed, infringing, infringes
To infringe is to break a law or to encroach on a right. Infringe a patent, infringe on privacy, infringing copyright.
In intellectual property it is the standard word, and infringing a patent does not require having known about it. With rights it usually takes on or upon, and the Latin behind it means to break off.
1verbinfringeTo break a law or to encroach on a right.
“Photographing people in their homes without permission infringes on their privacy.”
infringe is a breaking.
Latin infringere means to break off, from in plus frangere, to break.
Proto-Indo-European
*bʰreg-
Latin
īnfringō — to break off, break, bruise, weaken, destroy
English, today
infringe
Built from
Borrowed from Latin īnfringō (“to break off, break, bruise, weaken, destroy”), from in (“in”) + frangere (“to break”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA