An award-winning New York City furniture designer is suing the parent company of a furniture retail chain, claiming the Door Store commissioned another designer to copy his furniture for profit.

In a complaint filed yesterday in state Supreme Court, John Kelly, of John Kelly Furniture Design in Manhattan, said the Door Store’s CEO, Jodi Brinkman Fitzgerald, dismissed John Kelly Furniture Design as a supplier after finding that she could get “virtually identical” furniture from a competitor, Ligna USA Inc.

One of Mr. Kelly’s signature design features, according to the complaint, is furniture created to be promoted and sold in “series,” or corresponding pieces of similarly designed furniture that work together to create “room environments.”

The Door Store purchased Mr. Kelly’s “Tranquility Series,” consisting of a bedroom set in matte black ash and featuring grooved drawer pulls on many of the pieces, between December 2004 and February 2008, according to the suit. As part of a sales relationship with the chain, Mr. Kelly claims he gave the Door Store binders of specifications, including dimensions, schematics, and photographs.

The suit claims that in late 2007, Door Store employees, including Ms. Fitzgerald, met with representatives of Ligna, and asked the furniture designer to study and “knock off” Mr. Kelly’s designs. According to the complaint, Mr. Fitzgerald asked Ligna to let her know what it “could do for her” and “how close” it could copy the Tranquility Series.

Following the meeting, agents of Ligna allegedly visited Door Store showrooms to photograph Mr. Kelly’s furniture, and The Door Store had beds and night tables from the collection shipped to a Ligna facility in Indonesia.

In March, the Door Store unveiled the “Dream Collection,” a bedroom set with the same number of pieces as the Tranquility Series, and with the same wood finish and similar grooved drawer pulls and a nearly identical layout, according to the suit. At the same time, the store canceled two purchase orders for the Tranquility Series.

The suit also claims the Door Store earlier requested that another designer, Sitcom, copy Mr. Kelly’s furniture, but the designer refused.

Ligna USA and Jodi Fitzgerald are faulted in the suit, as is Furniture-In-Parts Corp., owner of the Door Store. Among other allegations, Mr. Kelly claims deceptive business practices and a misappropriation of ideas and trade secrets.

Ms. Fitzgerald said yesterday that she had not yet seen the complaint and was not aware of it, but denied the furniture had been copied. Mr. Kelly, she said, worked jointly with the Door Store in designing the Tranquility Series, and all of the Door Store’s manufacturers are required to go through a process with legal counsel to make sure their designs are protected.

Ms. Brinkman also claimed that there was a different reason for the change in furniture manufacturers: “Mr. Kelly switched factories in the winter of ’06,” she said. “After the original factory changed, the quality went down.”

Representatives of Ligna USA, which is based in California, did not immediately return requests for comment.

In January, Diane von Furstenberg filed a similar lawsuit against Target, claiming the retailer had used a “nearly identical copy” of one of her fabric designs.