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159 U. Pa. L. Rev. PENNumbra 1 (2010)

handle is hein.journals/pennumbra159 and id is 1 raw text is: ESSAY A FAILURE OF UNIFORM LAWS? MICHAEL RISCH! INTRODUCTION The Uniform Trade Secrets Act (UTSA) has been adopted in for- ty-six states' over its thirty year existence. Uniform laws like the UTSA serve at least two important purposes. First, they provide a consistent set of rules to provide settled expectations for interstate activities. The Uniform Commercial Code and Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act are good examples of this purpose. Buyers, sellers, and parents cannot avoid important legal rules by changing states, therefore help- ing to reduce forum shopping. Second, uniform laws allow state legis- lators to adopt sister-state statutory interpretations when they enact the law. The UTSA illustrates this purpose Each state's UTSA case law should theoretically apply in every other state adopting it-an im- Associate Professor of Law, Villanova University School of Law. The author thanks the Hon. LarE V. Starcher (Ret.) and West Virginia Suprieme Court Clerk Rory Perry for their time and effort in identifying West Virginia trade secret cases. Addi- tional helpful input was provided by David Almeling, Shelley Cavalieri, Eric Claeys, Er- icJohnson, David Levine, Elizabeth Rowe, Sharon Sandeen, David Schwartz, and par- ticipants in the Hairline University College of Law Symposium on the Uniform Trade Secrets Act. Valuable research assistance was provided byJosh Nightingale and Jenny Maxey. I MELVIN F.JAGER, TRADE SECRETS LAW § 3:29 (2010). 2 See, e.g., W. VA. CODE ANN. § 47-22-8 (LexisNexis 2010) (stating that the West Virginia Trade Secrets Act shall be applied and construed to effectuate its general purpose to make uniform the law with respect to the subject of this act among states enacting it). The UTSA also provides consistent riules for interstate commerce, espe- cially for employers with employees in multiple states.

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