Christopher P. Bussert is Senior Counsel in the Atlanta office of Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton LLP. He has more than 40 years of experience in helping clients protect and defend their intellectual property assets. Mr. Bussert represents clients in trademark, franchise, copyright, and unfair competition litigation, including proceedings before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board, and in licensing and trademark clearance and prosecution matters. He has written and spoken frequently on a wide range of intellectual property subjects. Among other things, he served as co-editor-in-chief and co-author of The INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY HANDBOOK: A PRACTICAL GUIDE FOR FRANCHISE, BUSINESS AND IP COUNSEL (ABA 2016) and is a chapter co-author of FUNDAMENTALS OF FRANCHISING (ABA 4th Ed. 2015), MERGERS AND ACQUISITIONS OF FRANCHISE COMPANIES (ABA 2d Ed. 2014), and ANNUAL FRANCHISE AND DISTRIBUTION LAW DEVELOPMENTS 2014 (ABA 2014) and has authored and co-authored more than two dozen articles published in The Franchise Law Journal, The Franchise Lawyer, The Trademark Reporter, and The IP Strategist, among others.

Chris has been active for a number of years in various Bar organizations most notably the ABA Forum on Franchising for which he served as a member of the Governing Committee, co-chair of the 2016 Annual Meeting, and editor-in-chief of The Franchise Law Journal, and The International Trademark Association, for which he served as Education Committee Chair, Chair of the 2004 Annual Meeting and a member of the editorial board of The Trademark Reporter. Chris has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America (twice as Atlanta Lawyer of the Year in Franchise Law), Chambers USA, Super Lawyers, and in the International Who’s Who of Trademark Lawyers, Franchise Lawyers and Business Lawyers, has been named as a Legal Eagle by Franchise Times (and was named to its 2023 Hall of Fame Class), was listed in World Trademark Review’s “The Trademark Experts’ Experts’” and in its annual guide to the top 1000 trademark practitioners in the world every year since its inaugural publication. He currently serves on the editorial board of the IP Strategist.