[Buckleyisms]

The point is that even showing up costs time and possibly travel expenses. Court proceedings are slow, so without a lawyer, you'll spend days of your time in court fighting the case.

It's possible to defend yourself without a lawyer. People have done it successfully. However, to be successful, you have to spend a lot of time learning, understanding and using the law to your advantage, and it's usually not worth it. Even lawyers will hire other lawyers to defend them, if they're defendants in a case outside their area of speciality.

There's a pervasive attitude that representing yourself without a lawyer lowers your chance of winning, though there are no hard statistics either way.

If you don't show up at all, you'll almost always lose. In many cases, if you fail to show up, the judge is required to rule in favor of the only party that showed up. Even if that wasn't the case, if the judge is only listening to one side of an argument, they're likely to agree with that side.

[jsprogrammer]

NPM doesn't need to send a lawyer or any representative.

KIK must prove infringement to get a court order and they won't be able to because they claim no Trademark protection in any goods or services that `kik` deals in.

NPM could have been a dispassionate observer, but decided to take it upon themselves to arbitrate a Trademark dispute. To me, this opens them up to liability if they make any incorrect decision or findings. Why would they want to take on this liability?

There is no pressing need for them to become involved. They should have let Trademark courts handle Trademark disputes.