The Unfair Competition Prevention and Trade Secret Protection Act provides a framework for the effective protection of trade secrets. According to Art.1 of the Act, trade secrets are defined as "information, including a production method, sale method, useful technical or business information for business activity, that is not known publicly, is the subject of considerable effort to maintain its secrecy and has independent economic value. The law (chapter 2) contains provisions for the protection of trade secrets, such as an injunction against infringement, liability for damages, and restoration of reputation.

It is reported that Korea has no obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in the country to deliver telecom services to end users. However, it is practiced in the mobile sector and in the fixed sector based on commercial agreements.

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

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

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

Korea has a clear regime of copyright exceptions that follows the fair use model, which enables the lawful use of copyrighted work by others without obtaining permission. Art. 35.5 of the Korean Copyright Act lists the exceptions, which include any use that does not conflict with the general method of use of the copyrighted work and which unfairly infringes the legitimate interests of the author. To determine whether an act of use of a copyrighted work falls under the fair use model, the following issues are considered: the purpose and nature of the use; the types and uses of copyrighted works; the proportion and importance of the part used in the whole work; and the impact of the use of the work on the market or current value or market or potential value of the work.

Commercial presence is not required in order to provide cross-border services under the Commercial Act and the Enforcement Decree of Foreign Exchange Transactions Act. However, it is reported that "Korea prohibits foreign satellite service providers from selling services (e.g., transmission capacity) directly to end-users without going through a company established in Korea. Given existing investment restrictions, this prohibition significantly restricts the ability of foreign satellite service suppliers to compete in the Korean market".

The Patent Law, enacted in 1990, does not contain provisions that result in discrimination based on the nationality of a patent applicant. However, according to Art. 25 of the law, non-resident foreigners cannot obtain patents unless their countries provide reciprocal treatment to Korean nationals under the same conditions as their own nationals or their countries have made a treaty or convention arrangement, following the reciprocity principle. In addition, pursuant the Art. 5 of the law, no person with no domicile or place of business in the Republic of Korea cannot initiate any patent-related procedure or file legal proceedings against a disposition made by an administrative authority under the Act or an order issued under the Act, unless they are represented by a patent attorney or patent agent, who has a domicile or place of business in the Republic of Korea. Finally, under Sec. 201, patent applications must also submit a Korean translation of various documents, including, an abstract of the international patent application; a description of the invention, the claims, and the drawings (limited to the titles of the drawings); among others.

In order to provide internet multimedia broadcasting services, an approval of the Broadcasting and the Communication Committee is required under the Internet Multimedia Broadcasting Business Act. This regime under Art. 4 has been in place since 2008.

Since 1998, Art. 4 of the Foreign Investment Promotion Act has provided that the national government has a right to decline a foreign investment if there is clear evidence that this investment poses a threat to the national security or public interest. This is not sector-specific but applies horizontally. A decision of the national government about restricting a foreign investment is followed by a notification of the Minister of Knowledge Economy including the categories of business and content of restriction. Korea uses a negative list system, which means that the country is open to foreign investments unless it is explicitly restricted.

Under Art. 18, the Telecommunications Business Act 2010 requires that foreign investors must obtain authorization for acquisitions or mergers of facilities-based telecommunications services providers.

Under the Telecommunications Business Act, telecommunications businesses are divided into two categories: namely, facilities-based telecommunications services (FTS) and value-added telecommunications services (VATS). FTS refers to businesses that install telecommunications line equipment and facilities and provide telecom services. VATS are online services using the FTS network, such as cloud computing services, email, e-commerce platforms, and internet search engines. Since 2009, the Act has prohibited foreigners from owning more than 49% of the stock of a telecom enterprise when it comes to FTS (Art. 8).

Under Art. 14 of the Broadcasting Act, no foreign ownership is allowed in terrestrial broadcasting business or community radio broadcasting entities. Only 20% of foreign ownership is allowed to a program provider engaging in general programming or a CATV relay broadcasting business entity. Up to 49% of foreign ownership is allowed to a CATV broadcasting entity, satellite broadcasting business entity, or a single transmission network business entity. This restriction has been in place since 2009.
Under Art. 9 of the Internet Multimedia Broadcasting Services Act, only up to 49% of foreign ownership is allowed for internet multimedia broadcasting service providers or internet multimedia broadcast contents business operators. Only up to 20% of foreign ownership is allowed for internet multimedia broadcast contents business operators engaged in general programming or specialized programming of news reports. This restriction has been in place since 2009.

Korea is a party to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) and its commitments also cover the services sectors considered most important for digital trade, namely telecommunication services (CPC 752), telecommunication-related services (CPC 754), and computer and related services (CPC 84).

As of January 2021, pursuant to Art. 4 of the National Intelligence Service Korea Act (introduced by the amendment - Act No. 11104 - of 2011), and Art. 56 of the Electronic Government Act (introduced by the amendment - Act No. 10012 - of 2010), the National Intelligence Service (NIS) applies the Security Verification Scheme to network equipment and cyber-security software imported for government procurement. Generally, suppliers may satisfy this scheme in two ways: First, cyber-security software such as firewalls and intrusion prevention systems are certified at a Common Criteria Recognition Arrangement (CCRA) accredited lab outside of Korea. However, the Common Criteria (CC) certification may not be sufficient for two reasons. First, NIS may substitute the CC certification with other certification mechanisms that were internally developed (e.g., GS Certification). Second, NIS may reject a CC certification when it deems that the certification does not cover particular functions of the product that the government entity needs.

Second, network equipment must undergo a security function test. The equipment that has already passed this test may come in. NIS has been recently requiring even some of the cyber-security software that had been subject to the CCRA scheme to pass a security test report conducted by national test agencies. This software includes a software-based security USB (since January 2020), virtualization product (January 2020), host data leakage prevention product (January 2021), network data leakage prevention product (January 2021), and inter-network data transmission product (January 2022).

There are reported concerns, starting from 2014, over the additional verification requirement to network equipment, including equipment products that are "not normally considered as 'security' products, such as routers, switches, and IP-PBXs." It is also reported that the NIS has applied the verification scheme "in a non-transparent fashion."