Swiping other people's copyrighted work: To paraphrase Martha Stewart, it's a bad thing.
Stewart's company, Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, is being sued for copyright infringement by a Venice, Calif.-based designer, who claims that the company made unauthorized use of one of his designs in the magazine Martha Stewart Weddings.
Read the full lawsuit here.
The copyright-infringement suit was filed in Central California U.S. District Court by Gregory Beauchamp, who created the "States United of America" graphics line. He claims he was contacted by the magazine in 2009 to create the graphic for a "Save the Date" announcement to be contained for the publication's Spring 2010 edition.
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Beauchamp obliged, and one of his graphics was included in a collage, with credit. But he claims Martha Stewart Omnimedia stepped over the line when it printed a "substantially identical" graphic in the July 2011 issue of Martha Stewart Living — without credit or his permission.
The alleged unauthorized reproduction, the lawsuit claims, "is injuring Beauchamp by diverting sales from him and [leading] the public to associate the 'knock off' with him."
Beauchamp is seeking unspecified damages, plus attorneys' fees, court costs and interest.
Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia did not immediately respond to TheWrap's request for comment.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report