by Christos Zabounis

The French News Agency (Agence France Presse), through its correspondent in Istanbul, recently sent a telegram, as they used to say, about a subject that has caused an uproar in the neighbor country, as well as in France. The luxury goods house “Hermès” is in a legal dispute with a bookseller of Smyrna, who had the idea to register the name of the Greek god for his bookstore, which, it should be noted, has been operating for fifteen years, under the same name, to the Turk Patent Organization. Then Hermès-Paris’s lawyers intervened, citing copyright law to prevent Urmit Nar – that’s the bookseller – from using the name. The latter, in his post on X (formerly, Twitter), argued: “Mercury, or Santa Claus, belong to the cultural heritage of the world. No business should monopolize names that are ingrained in the collective consciousness.” To the delight of his nationalist compatriots, he added: “The god Hermes is also closely connected with the history of Izmir, the ancient Smyrna on the Aegean coast, the site of many stories in Greek mythology.” For its part, the French giant, with a turnover of 13.4 billion euros in 2023 and profits of 4.3 billion, avoided answering the questions of A.F.P. The trial is scheduled for March 27.