I checked that case and it’s exactly as I said in my prior post. It was the surname of the owner and he was using it for his business long before the domain name registration Nissan Motors couldn’t get it. Because they sued him as a trademark infringement. In my opinion it’s nothing but an abuse of legal rights and court should have ruled so as well but I’m not the judge.
So, if we turn back to the main subject you can’t claim infringement and damages from someone using their name.
The amount of grands they get is enough to understand how one might be inclined to continue/prolong the research project they are doing. On the other hand there is the sunk cost fallacy. They spend all this time and effort on a research subject basically staking their whole carriers on it being right or giving results and they can’t give up. I’m guessing most is doing it because of the sunk cost fallacy.