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

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

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.

The Act on Contracts to Which the State is a Party excludes, under Art. 4, international bidding for certain public procurement tenders in cases where:
- the procurement is for goods or services required for producing other goods or services intended for sale or resale;
- the products are manufactured by SMEs and purchased in accordance with the Act on Facilitation of Purchase of Small and Medium Enterprise-Manufactured Products and Support for Development of their Markets (Act on SMEs);
- A Presidential Decree prohibits such bidding in line with the Government Procurement Agreement.
This is also confirmed in Art. 5 of the Act on Contracts to Which a Local Government is a Party.

Under Art. 69 of the Electronic Government Act, enacted in 2001, and Cryptographic Module Testing and Validation Guidelines (Guidelines), promulgated in 2004, the National Intelligence Service (NIS) operates the Korea Cryptographic Module Validation Program (KCMVP). KCMVP validates that software, network (such as VPN and SW USB series), and hardware equipment that deals with non-confidential yet important information comply with the Cryptographic Module Validation Standards, which were amended in 2015. Appropriate encryption standards are developed in Korea, such as ARIA, SEED, LEA, and Hight. It is reported that the lack of recognition of other international encryption standards constitutes a barrier for foreign suppliers.
Under the Guidelines, suppliers of software, networks (such as VPN and SW USB series), and hardware equipment that deals with non-confidential yet important information must also submit the source code of their products to pass the Cryptographic Module Validation Process. It is reported that source code could potentially be required as part of common criteria certification administered by the IT Security Certification Center, a requirement for public procurement of cloud computing services.

According to Art. 48 of the Software Promotion Act, participation in government-led software procurement is limited to SMEs. The Act allows the participation of "large" companies in exceptional circumstances.

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, cybersecurity software, such as firewalls and intrusion prevention systems, is certified by a Common Criteria Recognition Arrangement (CCRA) accredited lab outside 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 recently required 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), virtualisation 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 have been reported concerns, starting in 2014, over the additional verification requirement for 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."

In 2016, the Korea Internet Security Agency (KISA) developed a cloud security certificate (KCSC) system governing public-sector cloud service procurement. This is based on the 2016 Notice on Protection of Information for Cloud Computing Services promulgated pursuant to Art. 23-2 of the Act on the Development of Cloud Computing and Protection of Its Users, which was inserted into the statute in 2015. It is reported that this constitutes a key barrier for cloud service providers because they are unable to meet some requirements for the certification without creating a separate, Korean-unique product.

Korea is a party to the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA). Although its commitments include a service sector regarded as central to digital trade, namely computer and related services (CPC 84), they only partially include telecommunication services (CPC 752) and do not include telecommunication‑related services (CPC 754).

Art. 8.1 of the Telecommunications Business Act stipulates that foreign governments or foreign nationals may collectively hold no more than 49% of the total issued shares of a facilities‑based telecommunications business operator that satisfies the criteria prescribed by Presidential Decree regarding the type, installation area and other characteristics of telecommunications line equipment. Under Art. 2.11, a “facilities‑based telecommunications service” is a service that transmits or receives voice, data, images and similar content without altering their form or substance and leases telecommunications line equipment to enable such transmission or reception, including services such as telephony and Internet connectivity.

Under Art. 14 of the Broadcasting Act, no foreign ownership is allowed in terrestrial broadcasting businesses 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.
Additionally 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 content business operators. Only up to 20% of foreign ownership is allowed for internet multimedia broadcast content business operators engaged in general programming or specialised programming of news reports. This restriction has been in place since 2009.

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.

Korea is a signatory of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Information Technology Agreement (ITA) of 1996 and its 2015 expansion (ITA II).