I agree that what Smash did wasn't covered by any sort of parody grey area, and at the end of it all, it sounds like that wasn't what their defense was.
From what I'm reading, it looks like they were going to question the 'copywriteability' of the books, since they were initially a fanfic of Twilight - that the books weren't EL James's intellectual property to start with since they were based on a 3rd party's work.
They also threw in the fact that the fanfic in its original form was available for free on the internet for years, making them public domain.
Quote:
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On information and belief, as much as 89% of the content of the allegedly copyrighted materials grew out of a multi-part series of fan fiction called Masters of the Universe based on Stephenie Myer’s (sic) Twilight novels. On information and belief, this content was published online between 2009 and 2011 in various venues, including fanfiction.net and the person website of Ericka (sic) Leonard. On information and belief, much or all of this material was placed in the public domain. [...] Represented by attorney Steven Lauridsen, Smash wants a declaration that the federal copyright registrations for the three Fifty Shades of Grey books are invalid and unenforceable and that the defendants have not violated copyright or trademark laws.
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Not so sure about the public domain part, but the whole fanfic angle would have been interesting to see played out in court. With how strongly Fifty Shades Limited protect their brand, it would have been a whole can of worms to deal with.