This explains why Apple has sued The Onion a dozen or so times for all the parodies that infringed on trademarks belonging to the corporation.

https://theonion.com/apple-introduces-revolutionary-new-lapt...

https://theonion.com/new-ipad-offers-3-months-of-something-c...

No, tradmarks can be parodied too. It's a first amendment protection, and extremely common in movies, TV and video games.

If the developer worked with a lawyer they could've gotten any suit by IKEA (this wasn't a suit yet, just a cease and desist letter) quickly dismissed.

Trademark is about preventing someone's brand for being confused for another. Unless someone was confusing this for being an official IKEA product I'm not sure why it would be in the ballpark of trademark.

There is also trade dress of course but that isn't really related.

Always been curious - what are some examples of trademarks being lost due to not being defended?

This is an often repeated statement online (like “fiduciary duty”) that way over emphasizes the risk. Parody media poses absolutely no risk to their trademark, not even a tiny bit of incremental “damage.”

Companies don’t need to be bulliest the vast majority of the time they act like one. We need to stop parroting this excuse for them.

Just waiting for The Coca Cola company to sue Bethesda for having Nuka Cola.