Italian confectioner Ferrero has obtained a favorable court ruling in China against a domestic imitator of its signature gold-wrapped Rocher chocolate, the Financial Times reported.

According to the newspaper, Beijing Supreme Court fined Montresor (Zhangjiagang) Food 500,000 yuan and ordered it to change its packaging following a four-year battle with Ferrero.

'This is an encouraging step and we will now be following the enforcement of the decision closely,' the newspaper quoted Ferrero spokesman Alessandro Cagli as saying.

Montresor, based near Shanghai, said it designed its packaging independently in 1990. It claimed not to have seen a Ferrero Rocher before 1993, but the Italian company says it began selling in China in 1984, the newspaper said.