Did Diddy Pilfer Perfume Bottle?

Sculptor claims rapper swiped design from two of his pieces

There's a big stink brewing over Diddy's perfume.

A Massachusetts sculptor is suing the rap impresario for allegedly ripping off a design for the bottle of the Puffster's citrusy fragrance Unforgivable.

In the lawsuit, filed last week in Springfield federal court and obtained by E! News, the artist known as Tom Patti accuses the artist known as Sean Combs of swiping the designs of pieces titled Compacted Gray With Clear and Ribs and Modulated Solar Airframe and copyrighted in the 1980s.

Diddy's camp declined to comment on the bottle brouhaha.

But Patti lawyer Steven Roth tells E! News that the container is a complete knockoff.

“Tom Patti is a world famous glass artist whose work is displayed in the Louvre, the Met and MOMA,” says Roth. “Ever since Unforgivable came out in an imitation cradle, similar to Tom Patti’s work, people have been questioning the similarity of the two works. Because of those comments Mr. Patti decided to take action against Sean.”

Both of Patti's designs have been regularly exhibited, most recently at the Heller Gallery in New York in 2006, where, ironically enough, Modulated Solar Airframe, valued at roughly $40,000, was stolen and remains missing to this day.

Around the same time, Diddy's Sean Jean-branded Unforgivable cologne hit the market courtesy of Estée Lauder. It quickly became established as one of the premiere fragrances of 2006, thanks to a successful promotional campaign branding it as "the ultimate expression of masculine confidence and passion...chill, sensual and sexy, much like the man whose name adorns the bottle."

Roth claims that Diddy's perfume sales are bolstered by the attractive shape of the bottle, and the attractiveness of Unforgivable is directly attributable to Patti’s designs.

“We have asked for an unspecified amount of money,” says Roth. “Mr. Patti is just looking to be compensated for the value of the work that increased the profit of Mr. Combs product.”

Patti is also seeking a court order to halt the use of the design due to the copyright infringement. According to his rep, in order to win the suit, the sculptor's legal team will have to prove the designer of the cologne cradle had knowledge of Patti's work or access to the work.

“Sean would be just as unhappy if someone took his music and made a profit off of it,” added Roth. “Mr. Patti is just as famous in his field.”

—Additional reporting by Whitney English

(Originally published Feb. 3, 2009 at 9:34 a.m. PT.)