There are complaints on the lack of transparency regarding the enforcement of patents, with difficulties of knowing the extent of protection, and with no data on enforcement and judicial actions.

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

Eritrea has a copyright regime under the Civil Code of the State of Eritrea. However, the exceptions do not follow the fair use or fair dealing model, therefore limiting the lawful use of copyrighted work by others. Arts. 1161-1172 list the exceptions, which include the reproduction of the original works if they are single copies and for private use; analysis and press reviews for educational and scientific purposes; daily news articles on current events, and if they are “official texts of legislative, administrative or judicial nature; among others.

Eritrea is reported to lack transparency in the area of copyright; in particular, there are reported difficulties in knowing the scope of IP protection, and there is a lack of data on enforcement and prosecutions on the ground.

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

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

Eritrea does not have a comprehensive framework in place that provides effective protection of trade secrets, but there are limited measures addressing some issues related to them. The Penal Code of the State of Eritrea discusses “Fraudulent Unfair Competition” in its Art. 359, penalising the acts of misappropriating others' “secret of manufacture, organisation or process” and misusing it in a “manner contrary to good faith”, with imprisonment between one and three years.

It is reported that there is no obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in Eritrea 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.

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

Eritrea does not have legislation specifically regulating public procurement, resulting in a lack of transparency in this area.

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

Chapter I of Title II of Regulation No. 02/18/CEMAC/UMAC/CM of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) provides that companies and individuals resident in CEMAC countries must obtain authorisation from the Bank of Central African States (BEAC) to hold offshore and onshore foreign currency accounts. If the BEAC does not act on the application within 30 days, it is deemed to have been approved. It is reported that these regulations force most companies to maintain their bank accounts in XAF rather than a foreign currency.

According to the Instruction No. 8/GR/2019 issued by the Governor of the Bank of Central African States to facilitate the interpretation and implementation of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC) Regulation 02/18/CEMAC/UMAC/CM, there is a limit of 1 million XAF (approx. USD 1,700) per month and per person for the remote settlement of transactions, including online payments. According to Arts. 7-8, justification needs to be provided above this limit. The Instruction provides guidance on the provision of Art. 34 of the Regulation, which implements certain limits for using electronic payment instruments outside the CEMAC and applies to the six CEMAC member states, including Equatorial Guinea.