The headlines should be announcing that Overstock is lowering its damages claim. After all, since the meaningless brokerage upgrade this week on Overstock.com (NASDAQ:OSTK), the stock has been pushed up to $17 a share.

Since Patrick Byrne's latest lawsuit seeks $3.5 billion in damages, as of the time when the stock was trading at $14.50 per share, we should expect to see that damages request reduced by an amount proportional to the subsequent rise in the stock price, right? (Just as the damage request should go up once Overstock dips below $14.50 per share.)

We'd hate to think that America's Most Transparent CEO, a Ph.D. who gave another pile of fairly specific operating targets for Overstock for 2007 and beyond, had a habit of just pulling numbers out of thin air, wouldn't we?

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At the time of publication, Seth Jayson had no positions in company mentioned here. See his latest blog commentary here. View his stock holdings and Fool profile here. Fool rules are here.