He lost in the sense that he filed a lawsuit and that lawsuit was dismissed.

It seems like a reasonable way to use the word, no?

He can appeal if he wants to, but if he had a good argument for why the statute of limitations shouldn't apply, he would already have brought it up.

Odds of him winning on appeal are low.

Sure, losing is winning. I mean what are words anyway?

Yep. Headline is clickbait. Never bet against Elon.