We know sports-courtroom analogies are overused, hackneyed, timeworn, trite (you get the idea). But, nevertheless they can be useful and provide a little color to what might otherwise be viewed by some (of course, not us) as dull legal goings on. For instance, we could simply report that the District of Maryland tossed out another case against a generic prescription drug manufacturer. Grinage v. Mylan Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 2011 U.S. Dist. Lexis 149667 (D. Md. Dec. 30, 2011). Or we could say –

A four-round hard glove fight took place in at 101 W. Lombard Street, Baltimore in the final days of 2011. The fight pitted local Beatrice “the Plaintiff” Grinage against West Virginia’s own Mylan “the Defendant” Pharmaceuticals. Catherine C. Blake, United States District Judge acted as referee. The stakes were Grinage’s claim for the wrongful death of her husband allegedly caused by his ingestion of generic Allopurinal. From the minute the bell rang, it was evident that the Defendant, with the law on its side, had the reach advantage. In the first round, the Defendant had Grinage reeling from a right uppercut. In the second, the Defendant’s left jab, right cross combination almost finished the Plaintiff off. The Plaintiff hung in for two more rounds, but the devastating blows from the prior rounds had taken the wind from the Plaintiff’s sails. With one last hook, the Plaintiff went down; the bell rang and Mylan emerged victorious. And the crowd went crazy!!