Target accused of stealing product designs from Williams-Sonoma

Ah -- I was waiting for news like this. Target -- the trendy and large discount retailer that has stores all over the nation competing just fine with larger Wal-Mart -- has been accused by upscale (and sky-high priced) retailer Williams-Sonoma of copying product designs of everything from Christmas stockings to votive candle holders.

This is not the first time that Target Corporation (NYSE:TGT) has been accused of design poaching. Brand name retailers with insane margins have been known to target discount chains that have similar product offerings without the similar retail price tag. What else can they do? Protecting those fat margins has to be done somehow, so when a similar product is offered at a discount price and at a discount retailer, the lawyers (as always) lather up for a nice herbal bath of sorts.

The suit by Williams-Sonoma Inc. (NYSE: WSM) "suggests" Target hides behind its vendors, which might indemnify the corporation from such lawsuits, at the same time it specifies precisely what products look like. Hmm -- this sounds like just about every retailer I've ever studied. How a lawsuit can proceed on such a flimsy pretense is beyond me, but it will be interesting to see how Target settles here -- and it will settle -- it has before; often quietly and out-of-court. It's a shame Williams-Sonoma can't copyright the blue sky and snowflake designs on its overpriced Christmas merchandise. Dang.