being asked to give it up in the first place. Kik explained to him that they have to fight this or lose their tradmark because thats how trademark law works.

I'm not a lawyer but from what I know that's a load of shit. There's nothing stopping a trademark holder from granting licensing rights to third parties, without charge, to use their trademark in specific ways.

They chose not to because its easier, and most people won't know better, so they roll over.

His response was basically "haha fuck you". He probably could've asked for a couple thousand and just changed the name of his project and everything would've been fine.

This is the correct response, even if Kik would've given him money. It's his package, he got the name first. Corpos can eat shit, just because its not the easy choice, or the choice you would've made doesn't mean it was wrong. That package should've stayed down on principal.