Merlin Triller lawsuit

Photo Credit: Solen Feyissa

Merlin has dismissed its multimillion-dollar unpaid royalties lawsuit against Triller – or at least one of the entities bearing the company’s name. Meanwhile, the overarching Triller Group is still staring down a possible default judgement and NASDAQ delisting.

The presiding judge just recently signed off on Merlin’s voluntary dismissal motion, thereby seemingly enabling the indie giant to shelve its complaint “without prejudice, solely as against defendant Triller Hold Co LLC.”

That means co-defendant Triller Group (NASDAQ: ILLR) remains embroiled in the courtroom confrontation; Judge Jeannette Vargas in approving Merlin’s motion specifically directed the clerk of court “to not close this case.”

Absent from the legal document or other recent filings is an explanation of exactly what prompted the partial dismissal; DMN reached out to reps for both Triller and Merlin for additional information but didn’t immediately receive a response.

In any event, all eyes are now on a high-stakes default judgement response deadline.

As we reported, Merlin, seeking millions in allegedly due licensing compensation from Triller, formally moved for default judgement on September 10th.

Judge Vargas then set an October 22nd deadline – tomorrow, that is – for Triller Group to “file any opposition to the motion for default judgment.” At the time of writing, this opposition didn’t appear to have made its way into the docket. Furthermore, the court has scheduled an in-person hearing on the default judgement push for November 17th.

The latter was initially teed up for November 10th, but Merlin counsel requested and received an adjournment due to a scheduling conflict. Another piece of the puzzle: Merlin, having initiated the complaint back in March, is apparently having a difficult time serving Triller.

Late last month, the plaintiff in a filing said it’d “contacted the Corporation Trust Company” – which had been described as Triller Group’s registered agent – “and confirmed that they no longer have an active relationship with Triller.” As such, Merlin refocused its service efforts on “the address identified in Triller Group Inc.’s SEC filings.”

While a possible order to pay $3.2 million is nothing to scoff at, in the near term, Triller Group seemingly has bigger fish to fry. As we summed up, the company previously acknowledged “its failure to timely file its Form 10-K for” 2024 as well as earnings reports for Q1 and Q2 2025.

Despite securing an extension, Triller in its own words “failed to file the Delinquent Filings during the extended period.” As a result, it received on October 14th “a delisting determination letter” indicating that ILLR would be delisted at the start of trading this coming Thursday, October 23rd, unless the company “timely requests a hearing.”

Now, Triller “intends to request a hearing before” the appropriate NASDAQ panel and to seek “a stay of any suspension or delisting action for a period of 15 days from the date of the request.”