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Actually they had a "leg to stand on," namely the fact that they were granted (I understand) both a trademark and a copyright on the phrase "Fair and Balanced" as a promotional tool for news and political commentary. Trademark law requires them to defend that trademark or lose it. Yes, they lost, in the context of political satire (unless they choose to appeal), but if they didn't even try to defend it they would have lost all rights to challenge MSNBC or CNN if they used the phrase to sell their programming.

Lame trademarks, copyrights, and patents are filed for and granted all the time. Intel has filed to trademark the letter "I" and the numbers "486", "586" and "686" on more than one occassion. The trademark on the phrase "fair and balanced" is tenuous at best and if the case had gone to court FOX's claim to trademark would have been narrowed or even invalidated. Put into the context of "FOX News: Fair and Balanced" or used in a stylized logo would probably be safe unless it was factually inaccurate.