Fujian-based sportswear and footwear producer Qiaodan Sports Co said Thursday that it may sue Michael Jordan for malicious prosecution in a counterstrike against a lawsuit the US basketball star filed against it in February.

If Qiaodan does decide to file a lawsuit, the charges would be "malicious prosecution, infringing upon the reputation of Qiaodan Sports and recurring economic losses," the company said in an e-mail response to the Global Times Thursday.

Jordan sued the Fujian producer in February, publicly accusing it of "deliberately and aggressively" using his name without permission and thereby misleading the public.

Qiaodan Sports said in February that it has been using the Qiaodan trademark since 2000, and that it is protected by Chinese law. But a website Jordan created about the case, therealjordan.com, states that he has been famous in China since the 1980s.

The lawsuit was accepted by Shanghai No.2 Intermediate People's Court in early March. But nine months later, the lawsuit has still not gone to trial.

Qiaodan Sports said it has been seeking a solution with Jordan since March, but claimed that Jordan is delaying matters, which may indicate that the true motive of the February lawsuit may be for business interest instead of reputation as claimed, the sportswear maker said in the statement.

Michael Jordan has acted as spokesperson for a number of sports brands including Nike.

A common practice (in brand name disputes) is for one party to negotiate with the other before filing a lawsuit, so Jordan's public accusation went against the common practice, Qiaodan Sports claimed.

In the first half of 2011, Qiaodan Sports reported a net profit of 280 million yuan, and the company had been planning an IPO on the Shanghai Stock Exchange before Jordan's accusation led them to table the plan, the company said.

"Michael decided to move forward with legal action to protect the use of his name and the interests of Chinese consumers. As both a professional athlete and a businessman, he has always played by the rules - and he expects the same of others," a spokesperson for Jordan's legal consultancy team said in an e-mail to the Global Times.

The team called the allegations of delay "suspect," saying, "it is the court that controls the pacing."

"The use of Jordan's Chinese name Qiaodan tends to make consumers think the basketball player has something to do with the company, which means Qiaodan Sports may have infringed on Jordan's rights," said Liu Jiahui, a lawyer specializing in trademark disputes with the Beijing-based Derun Law Firm.

So a retaliatory lawsuit by Qiaodan is not likely to achieve its desired effect unless Jordan bows to the pressure and drops the charge, Liu told the Global Times Thursday.

However, Zhang Qing, CEO of Beijing Key Solution Sports Consulting Co, said he found Qiaodan's suspicions to hold water. "I believe the lawsuit is a mirror of domestic and foreign companies' rivalry in the sector. Foreign firms don't sue domestic producers when they are small and pose no threat," Zhang told the Global Times.

Zhang said that Qiaodan has been leading China's second-tier sports markets with its stable management and financial performance, though it still ranks behind first-class sports brands Li-Ning and Anta.