Ethiopia has not appended the World Trade Organization (WTO) Telecom Reference Paper to its schedule of commitments.

It is reported that Ethiopia does not mandate functional separation for operators with significant market power (SMP) in the telecom market. However, there is an obligation of accounting separation.

Ethio-Telecom is the incumbent telecom provider and it remained the only provider until recently with the coming into force of the Proclamation No. 1148/2019. The company is fully state-owned.

It is reported that there is no obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in Ethiopia to deliver telecom services to end users, and it is not practiced in the mobile sector and in the fixed sector based on commercial agreements.

Ethiopia lacks a comprehensive regime for the protection of trade secrets.

Ethiopia has not signed the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty.

Ethiopia has not signed the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Performances and Phonograms Treaty.

According to Art. 3 of the Copyright and Neighboring Rights Protection Proclamation No. 410/2004, a certain work published/ printed/ released or made available to the public outside Ethiopia can only receive legal protection in Ethiopia if it is published or released in the country. Otherwise, foreign right holders are not accorded national treatment as Ethiopia did not sign any international conventions on copyright.

Copyright is not adequately enforced online in Ethiopia. High levels of software piracy and weak enforcement are reported, which can negatively affect digital commerce.

Ethiopia is not a party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

Ethiopia has a copyright regime under the Copyright and Neighboring Rights Protection Proclamation No. 410/2004. However, the exceptions do not follow the fair use or fair dealing model, therefore limiting the lawful use of copyrighted work by others. Arts. 9-11 list the exceptions, which include reproduction for personal Purposes and reproduction for teaching; among others.

The Inventions, Minor Inventions and Industrial Designs Proclamation No. 123/1995 assigns the same protection to local and foreign rights holders, once the foreign patents are re-registered in Ethiopia. However, according to Art. 9.7, an applicant who is not domiciled or who has not established business in Ethiopia shall appoint an agent who is domiciled in Ethiopia.

The Investment Proclamation No. 1180/2020 (implemented by Regulation No. 474/2020) prescribes a screening criterion on foreign investments in terms of minimum capital requirements. Art. 9 of the proclamation states that any foreign investor is required to allocate a minimum capital of USD 200,000 for a single investment project, in order to be allowed to invest in the country. If the foreign investor is going to work in a joint venture with a domestic investor, then the minimum capital requirement shall be USD 150,000. If the foreign investor is investing in architectural or engineering works or related technical consultancy services, technical testing and analysis or in publishing works, then the minimum capital requirement can be lowered to USD 50,000. This kind of capital requirement is one of the screening methods that the law uses to prevent small or start-up foreign investors from working in Ethiopia.

As stipulated under Art. 3(5) and 5(1/f/) of the Investment Regulation No. 474/2020, some investment areas such as postal services (excluding courier services) are reserved for a joint investment with the government of Ethiopia, while foreign investment in audiovisual service including film/music production and distribution is restricted to joint venture scheme with the nationals.

Art. 5 (1/e/) of the Investment Regulation No. 474/2020 (which implements the Investment Proclamation No. 1180/2020) reserves some areas of investment including advertisement and promotion for joint investment with domestic investors only. In other words, a foreign investor can only invest in the advertisement service sector in joint venture with an Ethiopian domestic investor. The scope of the law includes advertisement disseminated through the internet website being designed in Ethiopia or abroad (Section 3.3). Previously there was a ban to foreign investment in the advertising sector.