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.

Copyright is not adequately enforced online in Ethiopia. High levels of software piracy and weak enforcement are reported, which can negatively affect digital commerce. In addition, given the lack of enforcement capacity and coordination among Ethiopian Government agencies, IP enforcement is reported to be inconsistent.
It is also relevant to mention that, 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.

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

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

Law No. 649/2009 gives some preferential treatment to domestic goods or services suppliers over foreign suppliers in some cases. Art. 25 states that some preference margin can be granted for works carried out by Ethiopian nationals and for consultancy services rendered by Ethiopian nationals. The preferences can also be extended to SMEs that are established in accordance with the Small and Micro-Enterprises Proclamation. The Law mandates the Minister to issue directives determining the preference margin.
According to the Federal Government Public Procurement Directive of June 2020, preference margins are prescribed in Art. 16.20.2 as follows:
- For procurement of medical equipment: 25%;
- For procurement of other products: 15%;
- For construction and consultancy services: 7.5%.
For SMEs, these margins in Art. 16.20.2 only applies in International Competitive bidding as per Art. 16.20.5 of the Directive, in contrast to a 3% margin when competing with local suppliers in national competitive bidding. The provision of preferences granted to medical equipment or other products is subject to an additional requirement of not less than 35% of the production occurring in Ethiopia, certified by a competent auditor as per Art. 16.20.3 of the Directive.

It is reported that major procurements do not go through a transparent tendering process. Obstacles to foreign participation in government procurement tenders include complicated and inadequately established procedures, capacity gaps on the part of procurement agencies, delays in decision-making, lack of public information, and the need for personal connections to effectively compete. According to the report, at least one large company has had its multi-million-dollar contract with the government abruptly modified with little explanation and no apparent due process.

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

The Investment Regulation No. 474/2020, implementing the Investment Proclamation No. 1180/2020, reserves some areas of investment just for domestic investors. Art. 4.22 exclusively reserves investment in media services for domestic investors only. Complementary to the investment regulation, the Media Proclamation No. 1238/2021, under Art. 22 .1 reserves investment in the media sector for Ethiopian nationals only. The Media Proclamation defines media as "news agencies and all organs established to provide news or programs or news and programs to the public via periodicals, broadcasting service, and online media".

According to Art. 5(1/f/) and 5.2 of the Investment Regulation No. 474/2020, foreign share capital in audiovisual services, including film/music production and distribution, is capped at 49%. It is not clear whether this restriction also applies online.

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.

In accordance with the provisions of Sections 10, 11, 13 and 40 of the Electronic Communications Act, the Minister of Information, Communications, and Technology promulgated the Electronic Communications (Licensing) Regulations and the Electronic Communications (Importation, Type Approval and Distribution of Communications Equipment) Regulations. In accordance with Regulation 16 of the Importation, Type Approval and Distribution of Communications Equipment Regulations, it is unlawful for any individual or entity to supply, import or distribute radio communications equipment unless they have been granted a licence by the Commission as specified in Section 41.1 of the Act. Furthermore, Regulation 4 of the Licensing Regulations empowers the Commission to issue a general licence for the importation, distribution or sale of electronic communications equipment. The Commission may grant any number of licences to an applicant who meets the criteria set out in the application and the general licence conditions.

Eswatini does not have a national self-certification programme but relies on the certificates of conformity supplied by exporting countries. The Eswatini Standards Authority is a member of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Affiliate Country Programme, which allows developing countries to participate in the IEC standardisation activities and conformity assessments as well adopting IEC standards and gazette them as Eswatini national standards.