After nine years of effort, a Chinese ribbon manufacturer finally can print Yao Ming on its products as a trademark using the same two Chinese characters as the retired NBA star's name.

One of China's largest producers of ribbons used for gifts and decorations, Yama Ribbon was established in 2004 in Xiamen, Fujian province. The company filed for the trademark Yao Ming with the national trademark bureau in August that year.

The company had planned to register itself as Yamei Ribbon. But after learning that the name was already used by a competitor, its CEO - who is also called Yao Ming - decided to use his own name to register the company and its Chinese trademark.