According to Art. 5 of the Type Approval Guidelines, type approval applies to anyone who imports, manufactures, uses, or supplies telecommunication or broadcasting equipment for use or sale in Botswana. The person who wants to use or sell this product must register the equipment with Botswana Communications Regulatory Authority (BOCRA), prior to importing, unless the equipment concerned has already been registered in BROCA’s Type Approval Database. According to Art. 6, for registration, the application must be accompanied by a declaration of conformity (DoC) and a full set of test reports confirming compliance with declared conformity. In addition, according to Section 6.5, it is not necessary to submit any other documentation or a sample of the equipment unless requested to do so by BOCRA. As specified in Art. 10, test results must be obtained from a labouratory that has been accredited by a body that is a member of the International labouratory Accreditation Cooperation (ILAC) Mutual Recognition Arrangement. Test results should be included with the application unless BOCRA specifically states in writing that test results are not required. The equipment must be tested for compliance with BROCA’s technical specifications (or equivalent) and should cover areas of safety, electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), and technical standards. Reference to such compliance must be included in the declaration of conformity submitted with the application.

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

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

The Data Protection Act provides a comprehensive regime of data protection in Botswana.

Botswana has a copyright regime under the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Act 2000. However, the exceptions do not follow the fair use or fair dealing model, therefore limiting the lawful use of copyrighted work by others. Section 12 lists the exceptions, which include private reproduction for personal purposes, reproduction for teaching, reprographic reproduction by libraries and archives, reproduction, broadcasting and other communications to the public for information purposes, importation for personal purposes and temporary reproduction, amongst other things. In addition, Section 3 of the Act lists the types of works that would be protected, including computer programs. Furthermore, Section 36 provides that the provisions of any international treaty with respect to copyright and related rights to which Botswana is a party shall apply. Botswana is a signatory to the TRIPS Agreement, which has incorporated the Berne Convention.

Clause 15.5 of the Service and Application License terms and conditions states that all accounts and records of the licensee providing electronic communication services under the Communications Regulatory Authority Act (No. 19 of 2012) must be kept in secure locations and formats to ensure their preservation. Performance-related data must be retained for at least one year, and all financial records must be retained for at least five years.

Copyright enforcement online in Botswana is inadequate. Reports indicate that piracy and content theft in Botswana primarily take the form of online broadcast piracy, which entails using video and audio content without the permission of the rights holders.

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

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

Botswana does not have any regulation on trade secrets. The area is usually left to common law, usually invoked in the courts. The common way in which trade secrets are protected is through the use of non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) and contracts.

It is reported that there is an obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in Botswana to deliver telecom services to end users. Moreover, passive infrastructure sharing is practised in the mobile and fixed sectors based on commercial agreements.

The Botswana Telecommunications Corporation Limited (BTCL) is a telecommunications company formerly a government parastatal. Clause 6.2 of the Constitution of the BTCL states that no shares shall be issued to foreigners. Therefore, foreigners cannot own shares in this telecommunications company, which is also Botswana's only listed telecommunications company.

State-owned enterprises operating in the telecommunications sector in Botswana are Botswana Telecommunications Corporation Ltd (BTCL), a provider of telecommunications and Internet services (ISP), and Botswana Fibre Networks (BoFiNet), a wholesale provider of telecommunications infrastructure responsible for enhancing broadband penetration. The Government of Botswana reportedly owns 51% of the shares of BTCL and 100% of the shares of BoFiNet.

It is reported that Botswana does not mandate functional separation for operators with significant market power (SMP) in the telecom market. However, there has been an obligation to separate the accounts since 2012.

Botswana has not appended the World Trade Organization (WTO) Telecom Reference Paper to its schedule of commitments.