The IT IP Law Group Europe was established at a meeting in London on 5 April, 1989 at the offices of Stephenson Harwood. Law firms from the UK, France, Austria, Switzerland and The Netherlands sent their representatives to this inaugural Meeting. The representatives were Ranald Robertson (UK), André Bertrand (France), Arthur Wolff (Austria), Emil Neff (Switzerland) and Dinant Oosterbaan (The Netherlands). Click to download Minutes inaugural Meeting April 5, 1989 .

The meeting decided to form a European wide group of law firms specialising in information technology law, to which later intellectual property law was added, and to co-operate in this area. It was further decided to issue a newsletter (hardcopies) with short articles and news in the legal area of IT law, and to distribute this newsletter worldwide to clients, prospects, the Computer Law Association and ADAPSO and other interested persons and companies to promote the group and the legal services of its member firms. The target date for the public announcement of the formation of the group and the issue of the first newsletter was May 23, 1989, to coincide with the Computer Law Association meeting to be held in Washington DC on that date. During the first meeting the member firms decided to give priority to identifying new member firms for Germany, Spain, Sweden and Belgium.

The second Meeting of the Group was held on 8 June, 1989 in Paris. It focussed on the identification of new member firms in other countries and the meeting also agreed on the logo of the IT Law Group Europe and its registration as a trade mark. From its first issue, the newsletter was a great success and at the meeting it was decided to reprint it, and to issue No 2 in September 1989 and No 3 in December 1989.