Christopher Gibson

Of Counsel

• cgibson@steptoe.com
• vCard
• London Office

Christopher Gibson is a consultant to the London and Washington offices of Steptoe & Johnson and a member of the International Arbitration group and the Intellectual Property group.

International Dispute Resolution
Mr. Gibson represents clients in commercial conflicts, focusing on international arbitration and litigation, particularly where intellectual property, technology or complex international law issues are involved.

He has acted as lead counsel in arbitrations involving international contracts and arbitral award enforcement. He has also acted in investment related disputes involving technology, breach of software licenses or confidentiality in a multinational satellite joint venture, arbitrations involving insurance, and disputes involving domain names and intellectual property infringement.  He is a member of several international arbitrator rosters, including domain name panels. He has been appointed as arbitrator in a number of arbitrations including ad hoc, the International Chamber of Commerce and domain name disputes.

Intellectual Property
Mr. Gibson advises clients on a wide variety of issues involving intellectual property, technology and related commercial and regulatory matters.  His practice focuses on evaluating intellectual property and negotiating/drafting related agreements, particularly where international issues are involved.  He also advises on technology and trade-related intellectual property issues, such as the TRIPS Agreement, anti-counterfeiting and enforcement of IP rights.  Mr. Gibson represents a number of telecommunications companies concerning intellectual property and technology issues, and he has extensive experience on the intellectual property issues raised by electronic commerce.

Technology & E-commerce
Mr. Gibson advises on a full range of technology and e-commerce commercial and regulatory issues, and represents a number of leading e-commerce companies.  He also acts for a number of industry groups developing technologies, standard-setting in technology,  and entertainment in the communications and mobile phone sector, and he represents a variety of telecommunications companies.

Internet Domain Names
Mr. Gibson has extensive experience in all aspects of domain name matters, including representing clients in disputes, advising on domain  name system (DNS) legal and technology issues, providing strategy in relation to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), and covering the emerging issues arising from convergence of the DNS with the telecommunications sector.

Background 
Mr. Gibson joined Steptoe & Johnson in early 2001 from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva, where he was Head of the Electronic Commerce Law Section.  He covered the legal issues generated by electronic commerce, including copyright, trademark, domain name and enforcement issues, and he was a principal officer involved in WIPO's domain name work, including the dispute resolution procedures which ICANN adopted as the Uniform Domain Name Procedure (UDRP).  He has extensive experience with the rules and rule-making procedures used by WIPO and other international organizations.

Mr. Gibson also has broad background in private commercial and public international law and arbitration.  Following law school, he clerked for the Honourable Stanley A. Weigel in the US Federal District Court for the Northern District of California, practiced international arbitration and IP litigation with a pre-eminent California law firm in San Francisco, worked as a legal assistant at the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in the Hague, the Netherlands, and headed a division of the United Nations Compensation Commission in Geneva dealing with claims arising from the Gulf War.

Recently, after practicing as a partner in the London office of Steptoe & Johnson, Mr Gibson accepted a position as Associate Professor of Law at Suffolk University School of Law in Boston, where he teaches courses on law and global technology, international business transactions and international dispute resolution .  He continues to work as Of Counsel with Steptoe.

Noteworthy

• Mr. Gibson has spoken at more than 70 conferences around the world on the topics of international dispute resolution, policy-making, intellectual property, technology and electronic commerce.  He has also presented and taught at numerous workshops and seminars.
  

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Publications

• The EU Copyright Directive – UK Implementation; Convergence
  January 2003
• Keeping the Confidence in International Arbitration
  November 2002, ICC Members Handbook 2002
• IP Audits in the Internet Age; World eBusiness Law Report (co-author with Dudley Kneller)
  Fall 2002
• Ralph Lauren Loses String of UDRP Cases; Electronic Business Law
  August 2002, Electronic Business Law
• WIPO Internet Copyright Treaties Coming Into Force
  August 2002
• State of Play for E-Commerce Directive; Convergence
  July 2002, Issue 15
• WIPO Primer on Electronic Commerce and Intellectual Property; Editor and Principal Author, WIPO/OLOA/EC/PRIMER
  May 2002
• New Numbering Convention by Oftel; Convergence
  February 2002

More Publications »

Professional Affiliations

• Member, American Bar Association
• Member, American Intellectual Property Law Association
• Member, American Society of International Law
• Member, International Chamber of Commerce
• Member, London Court of International Arbitration