A Chinese firm trying to stop Apple Inc, from using the iPad name in China has launched an attack on the consumer electronics giant’s home turf, Reuters reported. Proview International Holdings Ltd. recently filed a lawsuit in California that accuses Apple of employing deception when it bought the trademark.

A unit of Proview, a major computer monitor maker that fell on hard times during the global financial crisis, is already suing Apple in multiple Chinese jurisdictions and requesting that sales of iPads be suspended across the country.

At stake for Apple is its sales and shipments in China, where its CEO, Tim Cook, said it was merely scratching the surface. Debt-laden Proview International, meanwhile, needs to come up with a viable rescue plan before mid-2012 or face delisting from the Hong Kong stock exchange.

Proview accuses Apple of creating a special-purpose entity — IP Application Development Ltd., or IPAD — to buy the iPad name from it, concealing Apple’s role in the matter.

Apple today said again that it bought Proview’s worldwide rights to the iPad trademark in 10 different countries several years ago. It also said that Proview had refused to honor their agreement and a Hong Kong court had sided with Apple in the matter.