Would you risk going into massive legal debt for project you make no money from? Or would you continue to develop it for yourself and no longer post it publicly.
taking pro se forces the company to provide evidence and pay for lawyers while you just wait for their case to build, if they don't have a case, then there's no problem, if it gets to trial they have to prove damages, since there aren't any, that will be difficult to prove.
Taking pro se is not recommended in most situations but in this one, where the damages are entirely made up, taking pro se would not be overly tumultuous