Chile has a telecommunications authority: The "Subsecretaría de Telecomunicaciones" (SUBTEL). However, it is reported that the decision-making process of this entity is not fully independent from the government.

Pursuant to Art. 21 of Law No. 18,168, telecom concessions may be granted only to private or public legal entities duly incorporated and domiciled in Chile. Moreover, according to Art. 24 (h) internet access providers are required to have a public telecommunications service concession or intermediate telecommunications service concession, as applicable, and they must guarantee a percentage of the average access speeds in accordance with Art. 24 (k).

It is reported that Chile does not mandate functional or accounting separation for operators with significant market power (SMP) in the telecom market.

Act No. 19,039 provides a framework for effective protection of trade secrets. Arts. 86-88 refer to trade secrets as business secrets. A trade secret is any knowledge relating to products or industrial processes that when kept secret confers on its holder a competitive advantage. In order to claim the protection that the Chilean law grants to holders of trade secrets, it is necessary to meet these three requirements: 1) the information should always remain secret, which means that it should not be generally known or readily accessible to third parties; 2) the information must have trade value –or at least potential commercial value– for the SME, and it should be linked to the fact it is secret; 3) the holder of the trade secret must take “reasonable steps” to protect the information as confidential.

According to Art. 26 bis of Law No. 21.245, concessionaires of public telecom services that are assigned rights to use the radioelectric spectrum must allow access and use of their facilities to other public service concessionaires (or concessionaires that are interested in establishing themselves as such) for virtual mobile and automatic roaming operations.

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

There are concerns about the adequacy and effectiveness of the protection and enforcement of IP in Chile. Furthermore, there are concerns about the lack of effective remedies to deal with the illegal circumvention of technological protection measures and about an ineffective Internet Service Provider liability regime against online piracy. Chile passed legislation establishing criminal penalties for the importation, commercialization, and distribution of decoding devices used for the theft of encrypted program-carrying satellite signals, but it is reported that it lacks information about the full scope of activities criminalized in the implementation of the law and that it should provide remedies or penalties for willfully receiving or further distributing illegally decoded encrypted program-carrying satellite signals. Concerns remain regarding the availability of effective administrative and judicial procedures, as well as deterrent-level remedies, to right holders and satellite service providers. In addition, it is reported that the rate of unlicensed software installation in the country was 55% in 2017 (above the 52% rate of the Latin American countries) for an estimated commercial value of USD 283 million.

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

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

Chile has a copyright regime under Law No. 17,336. However, the exceptions do not follow the fair use or fair dealing model, and therefore limit the lawful use of copyrighted works by third parties. Title III lists the exceptions, including the reproduction of; lawfully published works, which are made for the benefit of persons with visual, hearing or other disabilities; works of architecture by means of photography, cinema, television and any other analogous procedure, as well as the publication of the corresponding photographs in newspapers, magazines and books and texts intended for education; among others.

Art. 2 of the Industrial Property Act states that natural or legal persons residing abroad must designate a proxy or representative in Chile to file a patent application. A patent must be registered with the National Institute for Industrial Property (INAPI). An application should be filed before the invention is disclosed to the public. A prior foreign application can be invoked in Chile, within a certain period of time. The patent must fulfill three main requirements: novelty, level of invention, industrial application.

Chile is not a party to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA). However, the country has been an observer of the WTO GPA since 1997.

According to Art. 67 of Decree No. 250, the tendering agency may establish the obligation to constitute a company of Chilean nationality or an agency in case a foreign company wins a public tender.

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