It is reported that the Ethiopian government imposed a communications blackout on the Tigray region between November 2020 and July 2021 as Ethiopian and Tigrayan security forces fought. In addition, authorities have reportedly restricted mobile data access in various major cities within the Amhara Region, including Gondar, Bahir Dar, and Woldia, starting from April 2023. Mobile data remained unavailable in these cities as of May 2023. Subsequently, in August 2023, after the reporting period had ended, authorities blocked internet access in the Amhara Region.
Additionally, the indicator "6.2.4 - Government Internet shut down in practice" of the V-Dem Dataset, which measures whether the government has the technical capacity to actively make internet service cease, thus interrupting domestic access to the internet or whether the government has decided to do so, has a score of 2 in Ethiopia for the year 2023. This corresponds to "The government shut down domestic access to the Internet several times this year."

Art. 5 (1. e) of 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. According to Section 3.3 of the regulation, the scope of the law includes advertisements disseminated through the internet website being designed in Ethiopia or abroad. Previously, there was a ban on foreign investment in the advertising sector.

According to Art. 82.1 of the Commercial Code No. 1243/2021 and Arts. 5.1 & 22 of the Commercial Registration & Licensing Proclamation No. 980/2016, any Ethiopian or foreign person or company carrying out commercial activities within Ethiopia shall be registered and then licensed.

The importation of telecommunication equipment requires authorisation by the government. The Communication Services Proclamation No. 1148, under Art. 23, gives broad powers to the Ethiopian Communication Authority to regulate the importing of any telecommunication equipment to the country. It is prohibited to manufacture, import, or distribute radiocommunications and telecommunications equipment that requires the Authority’s technical efficacy assurance without obtaining prior approval of the Authority.

Proclamation 808/2013 mandates the Information Network Security Agency (INSA) to control the import and export of information technologies, build an IT testing and evaluation laboratory centre and regulate cryptographic products and their transactions.

Ethiopia has not joined any free trade agreement committing to open transfers of cross-border data flows.

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.

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

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

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 practised in the mobile sector and in the fixed sector based on commercial agreements.

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.