Simon Cowell is taking legal action against US band One Direction who are suing the UK group over rights to the name.
The music boss' entertainment company, Syco, has launched the counter-claim suggesting the American group is trying to cash in on the success of the British group.
One Direction, known as 1D, were formed by Cowell on the 2010 series of X Factor.
The band, consisting of Zayn Malik, Louis Tomlinson, Liam Payne, Harry Styles and Niall Horan, have managed to crack the notoriously difficult American market.
In March, they become the first UK group to go straight to the top of the US Billboard charts with their debut album Up All Night.
While on a publicity tour of the country, they were constantly mobbed by teenage girls.
Similar scenes were replicated when the boys, aged between 18 and 20, arrived in Australia .
In April, Californian pop-punk band, also called One Direction, announced their intention to sue the UK band.
They claim to have been using the name since 2009 and say they applied to trademark the name long before the X Factor group.
The US One Direction are also suing Cowell's record label and Sony Music for \$1m (£630,000) in damages and claim they are entitled to profits made by the UK group.
The claim says the Californian band are suffering "substantial confusion and substantial damage" because of the UK group.
But Cowell's company believes the US One Direction have "devised and perpetrated a scheme to exploit the goodwill" of the British version of 1D.
