I think that unfortunately this was a foregone conclusion. Copyright law, like most other laws in our society, favor corporate interests.
I support his stand on principal, however. Azer is a talented developer and has an impressive life story, and has certainly contributed more to society than a social network well know for invading children's privacy.
I don't think there's a problem with trademark law here, I doubt that their claim is legally enforceable against the name of an npm module, as it's pretty obviously outside the goods and services which their mark is registered for. The problem is that npm are capitulating to what I suspect is an invalid request. As is often the case, people are scared of lawyers and forget that they have rights.
Copyright law is not at all related to this. It was a trademark dispute. You might've fallen into the trap of grouping several unrelated laws into "Intellectual Property", a misnomer which confuses confusion when discussing such laws.
I support his stand on principal, however. Azer is a talented developer and has an impressive life story, and has certainly contributed more to society than a social network well know for invading children's privacy.
https://medium.com/@azerbike/i-owe-my-career-to-an-iraqi-imm...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kik_Messenger#Controversies