Uruguay does not impose a requirement for functional separation on operators with significant market power (SMP) in the telecommunications sector. However, since 2003, operators have been subject to an obligation of accounting separation. Art. 15 of the Telecommunications Licensing Regulation provides that, as part of their service-related obligations, licensees may be required to maintain separate accounts by service where the Regulatory Unit for Communications Services (Unidad Reguladora de Servicios de Comunicaciones, URSEC) issues a general mandate for specific services or categories of licences. In addition, Art. 16 requires any licensee whose corporate purpose includes activities beyond the provision of telecommunications services to implement a system of accounting separation and cost accounting for those additional activities, in accordance with the guidelines and criteria periodically determined by URSEC.

Uruguay has not appended the WTO Telecom Reference Paper to its schedule of commitments.

Uruguay is a party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

Uruguay has a copyright regime under the Law No. 9.739. However, the exceptions do not follow the fair use or fair dealing model, therefore limiting the lawful use of copyrighted work by others. Art. 45 lists the exceptions, which include the publication of works intended for teaching, excerpts, fragments of poetry, and single articles, provided that the author's name is indicated; Publication of works intended for teaching, excerpts, fragments of poetry, and single articles, provided that the author's name is indicated; dissemination of news, reports, and journalistic information as long as their exact version is maintained and their origin is expressed; among others.

Copyright is not adequately enforced online in Uruguay. It is reported that 37% of broadband households in the country consume online piracy. In addition, an estimated 56% of the population consumes illegal online streaming services, and 18% of households consume illegal pay-TV.

Uruguay has ratified the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty.

Uruguay has ratified the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Performances and Phonograms Treaty.

Uruguay lacks a comprehensive framework in place that provides effective protection of trade secrets, but there are limited measures addressing some issues related to them.
In particular, Uruguayan law protects confidential commercial information through a range of instruments, including rules on public information and administrative confidentiality, and it recognises limits on compelled disclosure of commercially sensitive information, such as trade secrets and know-how, in certain regulatory contexts.
Art. 10 of Law No. 18.381 classifies as confidential commercial, industrial, scientific, and technical information whose disclosure could harm a party’s competitive position. Moreover, Art. 14 of Law No. 18.159 provides that requests for information by the competition authority do not create an obligation to disclose trade secrets, know-how, inventions, formulas, or patents.

Uruguay is not a signatory of the 1996 World Trade Organization (WTO) Information Technology Agreement (ITA) nor the 2015 expansion (ITA II).

Pursuant to Art. 58 of the Consolidated Text on Accounting and Financial Administration (TOCAF), public procurement may apply a price preference margin in favour of goods and services that qualify as domestic.
For goods, the preference margin is 8% and it is applied to the price of domestic goods delivered to the buyer’s warehouses. The Executive Branch must determine the minimum domestic content threshold required for a good to qualify as domestic, which may not be lower than 35% of that price.
For services, the preference margin is likewise 8%, applied to the service price. Where the service includes the supply of goods, the preference margin does not apply to the portion of the price corresponding to goods that do not qualify as domestic.
Art. 58 also provides for an additional 4% preference margin (for goods and services) for companies that include in their workforce persons of African descent, persons with disabilities, and transgender persons, in accordance with the relevant legislation and regulations. This margin may be incorporated into the standard procurement specifications for supply and non-personal service contracts.
Finally, to promote production in regions with relatively lower levels of economic development, the preference margin referred to above may be increased up to 16%. The Executive Branch is responsible for setting the applicable percentage by department, taking into account average departmental income relative to the national average, and for establishing the method to verify compliance with the relevant requirements.
Decree No. 13/009 further regulates the procedural framework applicable to these preference margins. It specifies the criteria for qualifying as national, including, inter alia, the national-content threshold for goods and the relevant criteria for national services and works.

Art. 59 of the Consolidated Text on Accounting and Financial Administration (TOCAF) establishes the Public Procurement Program for Development, which authorises the use of special procurement regimes and procedures to support domestic suppliers, particularly micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
Within this framework, instruments such as price-preference margins and market-reservation mechanisms may be applied in favour of domestic producers and suppliers. The price preference margin may reach up to twice the margins established in Art. 58 (which go from 8% to 16%), while procurement reserved for the market may not exceed 10% of the total contracts and purchases of the same agency in the relevant fiscal year. Art. 60 further provides that the program shall include, inter alia, a Subprogram for Public Procurement for Scientific and Technological Development and Innovation, coordinated by the National Agency for Research and Innovation.
Decree No. 371/010, which regulates the Public Procurement Subprogramme for the Development of MSMEs, further operationalises this framework by setting eligibility conditions.

Uruguay is not a party to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA), nor does it have observer status.

According to Art. 2 of the Investment Promotion and Protection Law 16906, the State of Uruguay establishes equal treatment in the regime of admission and treatment of investments made by foreign and domestic investors.

The procedure for equipment authorisation under Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules depends on the radio frequency (RF) functions of the device. Intentional radiators, which are devices designed to emit RF energy such as transmitters, must be authorised through the certification process, unless otherwise specified. Certification is the most rigorous form of authorisation and applies to equipment with a high potential to cause harmful interference to radio services. It involves a series of laboratory tests assessing the device’s electromagnetic interference (EMI) and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), conducted by an FCC-recognised accredited laboratory. The responsible party, such as the manufacturer or importer, must submit the test results and supporting documentation to an FCC-approved Telecommunication Certification Body (TCB), which evaluates whether the device complies with all applicable standards. Examples of intentional radiators include mobile phones, Wi-Fi equipment, Bluetooth devices, and remote controls. Unintentional radiators, such as digital circuitry that emits RF energy unintentionally, are generally authorised through the Supplier’s Declaration of Conformity (SDoC) procedure, which is less demanding and does not require TCB involvement. Many modern devices, such as smartphones, tablets, and notebook computers, incorporate both types of radiators; in such cases, the intentional radiator components must be certified, while the unintentional radiator components may be authorised under the SDoC procedure, with each part subject to the relevant testing and compliance requirements.