May 13 (Bloomberg) -- Jonathan Ive, the Apple Inc. design chief who helped create the iMac, iPod and iPhone, can’t block a U.K. citizen from using his name in four Web site addresses, a United Nations agency ruled.

Ive, 42, filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization, or WIPO, to block Harry Jones of London, a self-described Ive fan, from using domain names including jonathanive.com and jonyive.com. The Geneva-based agency rejected Ive’s claim, saying his name isn’t commercialized.

“The evidence provided indicates that the complainant (and Apple Inc.) do not promote the complainant’s name as a brand or trademark, and therefore do not use it in trade or commerce,” WIPO panelist John Swinson said in a May 5 decision.

Jones, who said he bought “jonathanive.com” in 2004 and set up the site to pay homage to the designer, told WIPO that his Web site makes “significant revenue” from advertising and that he earlier asked Apple to pay $400,000 to turn over the domain name rights. Apple offered him $10,000, according to the ruling.

Ive, who has led Apple’s design team since 1996 and currently serves as senior vice president of industrial design reporting to Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs, told WIPO in his March 6 complaint that his name is internationally renowned within the field of industrial design.

‘Very Private Person’

He said that he is a “very private person.” Though he has been asked to give interviews, offered jobs to design products such as cameras and cars, and been approached by movie directors to work on set design, he rarely accepts these offers, according to his complaint. Among his notable work outside Apple, Ive said, was designing the character “Eve” for Pixar’s 2008 animated movie “Wall-e” and an award-winning book cover.

“I seek to avoid publicity,” Ive said, according to the ruling. “My reputation has been established by the work I do.”

Jones said the most notable products Ive has developed are promoted and sold under Apple’s brand and not his own name.

“The issue as to whether a person has trademark rights in their personal name is a difficult one and there are many previous panel decisions based on diverse records which go either way,” Swinson said in the decision. “In the panel’s view, it would not have been clear to the complainant from the outset that he had no chance of success.”

Susan Lundgren, a spokeswoman for Cupertino, California- based Apple, said the company had no comment yesterday.

WIPO’s arbitration and mediation center was established in 1994 to offer alternative dispute resolution for international commercial disputes between private parties, according to its Web site.

To contact the reporters on this story: Erik Larson in New York at elarson4@bloomberg.net; Connie Guglielmo in San Francisco at cguglielmo1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 13, 2009 00:01 EDT