Turkmenistan has a telecommunications authority: the Agency for Transport and Communications (Turkmenaragatnashyk). However, the decision-making process of this entity is not fully independent from the government, given that the Cabinet of Ministers of Turkmenistan governs it.

According to Art. 17.2 of Law No. 519-V, the transborder transfer of personal data to the territory of foreign countries shall only take place if those countries guarantee the protection of personal data. In addition, Art. 17.3. points out that the cross-border transfer of personal data to the territory of foreign countries that do not ensure the protection of personal data may be carried out in the following cases: 1) if the data subject has given their written consent to the cross-border transfer of his personal data; 2) if international agreements approved by Turkmenistan provides for it; 3) if provided by the laws of Turkmenistan, if it is necessary for the purposes of protecting the principles of constitutional structure, human and civil rights and freedoms, public health and morals, public order, protecting the country and ensuring state security; 4) to protect the life, health, other legal interests, constitutional rights and freedoms of the data subject or other persons, if it is not possible to obtain the data subject's consent. Otherwise, pursuant to Art. 17.4, the international transfer of personal data abroad may be prohibited or restricted by the legislation of Turkmenistan.

Turkmenistan has not joined any agreement with binding commitments to open transfers of data across borders.

Act No. 519-V provides a comprehensive regime of data protection in Turkmenistan. It provides for data subject rights, data controller obligations, data transfer restrictions, and general principles for the collection and processing of personal information. It does not, however, contain data breach notification requirements, nor does it address the appointment of data protection officers. In addition to Act No. 519-V, the Code for Criminal Liability of 10 May 2010 No. 104-IV provides protection against cybercrimes, and further provisions applicable to data protection can be found in other legislation, such as the Code of Turkmenistan of 29 August 2013 No. 422-IV on Administrative offences.

Art. 13 of Law No. 226-VI contains provisions for storing electronic documents and archives of electronic documents. Electronic documents must be stored on an electronic storage medium in a form that allows their integrity and authenticity to be verified on the applicable medium. The obligation to store electronic documents lies with the involved parties of electronic document management. This includes any party, whether public or private, that owns the documents, or in whose interests they are to be used, or by whom they are to be stored, protected, blocked or removed, and so forth. Subjects of electronic document management can ensure the storage of electronic documents independently and use the services of intermediaries, archival institutions, and other institutions in electronic document management. In addition, Art. 56 provides that the body considering disputes between the subjects of electronic documents, electronic document flow and digital services shall have the right to demand from all subjects involved in the compilation, transmission, receipt, processing and storage of electronic documents the necessary materials and documents concerning the subject of the dispute.
Art. 20 of Law No. 392-IV requires documents in electronic form to be retained for three years.

Law No. 53-II provides a framework for the effective protection of trade secrets.

There is no obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in Turkmenistan to deliver telecom services to end users, and it is not practised in both the mobile sector and fixed sectors based on commercial agreements.

It is reported that there is tight state control of the economy, and the government has only allowed significant foreign ownership and foreign direct investment in the energy sector. Therefore, foreign ownership in the telecom sector is restricted. In addition, Art. 16 of the Law about Communications states that government, postal and courier communications, technical means and networks of telecommunications used for defence, national security, protection of the State border and law and order, as well as technical means of national television and radio broadcasting and the enterprises ensuring their operation and development, belong exclusively to State ownership.

The government owns shares in certain telecom companies. In particular, it owns shares in Turkmentelekom TC, which is a fully state-owned enterprise; Ashgabat City Telephone Network, with a 30% participation of the Ministry of Communications of Turkmenistan and 60% of Turkmentelekom; Altyn Asir CJSC (TMcell), which is fully owned by the Ministry of Communications of Turkmenistan.

Art. 43.2 of Law No. 629-V states that, unless otherwise provided by international treaties to which Turkmenistan is a party, foreign persons, as well as citizens of Turkmenistan residing outside the territory of Turkmenistan or having their permanent residence outside the territory of Turkmenistan, can exercise their rights in relations with Turkmenpatent (which is the State Service for Intellectual Property of the Ministry of Finance and Economy of Turkmenistan) only through patent attorneys registered at Turkmenpatent.

Art. 16 of Law No. 629-V establishes that an application for a patent or a limited patent shall be submitted in the State language (Turkmen). Other application documents may be submitted in another language, accompanied by their translation into the State language.

Art. 43.2 of Law No. 629-V states that, unless otherwise provided by international treaties to which Turkmenistan is a party, foreign persons, as well as citizens of Turkmenistan residing outside the territory of Turkmenistan or having their permanent residence outside the territory of Turkmenistan, can exercise their rights in relations with Turkmenpatent (which is the State Service for Intellectual Property of the Ministry of Finance and Economy of Turkmenistan) only through patent attorneys registered at Turkmenpatent.

Turkmenistan is a party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT). However, the country does not consider itself bound by Art. 59 related to disputes. It should be noted that this treaty was signed in 1970, at a time when Turkmenistan was part of the Soviet Union. Therefore, in 1995, when Turkmenistan became independent, it issued the declaration of continued application, and the date of entry into force was given as the date of independence, which was December 1991.

Turkmenistan has a copyright regime under the Law No. 257-IV. However, the exceptions do not follow the fair use or fair dealing model, therefore limiting the lawful use of copyrighted work by others. Chapter 3 lists the exceptions, which include reproduction for personal use, use of works for informational, scientific, educational and other purposes, use of works by libraries, archives and academic institutions (reprographic reproduction), reproduction of computer programs and databases, and free short-term recording by broadcasting organisations.

Copyright is not adequately enforced online in Turkmenistan, where the widespread use of unlicensed software is reported. Although some government agencies have begun to adopt licensed software, the country has yet to issue a presidential decree, law, or regulation requiring the use of licensed software by government ministries and agencies.