VMware is suing the American branch of the industrial concern Siemens for alleged use of unlicensed software. VMware also accuses Siemens of changing its position during negotiations.
The case was filed last Friday in federal court in Delaware, according to The Register. In the indictment, VMware claims that Siemens’ American operations used more VMware software than previously agreed. Siemens’ use of VMware became a point of contention when Siemens tried to arrange extended support for certain products.
On September 9, 2024, Siemens submitted a list of the VMware software used. The company is alleged to have demanded that VMware accept a purchase order to provide maintenance and support services for the products listed. According to the indictment, the list contained references to VMware installations far exceeding the number of licenses purchased.
VMware indicated that Siemens had good reason to hand over an accurate list. After all, mentioning unlicensed products would involve legal risks, while exaggerating usage would result in Siemens paying more for licenses and support.
Unlicensed software
VMware claims that it examined the list, discovered unlicensed software and informed Siemens of this. Siemens then allegedly maintained that the list was correct, demanded that VMware accept it and even threatened to take legal action if the company did not support the products listed.
Siemens allegedly believed it had the right to sue because it had an option for a one-year extension of support services, was convinced it had exercised that option and felt that VMware was not fulfilling its obligations. VMware says it agreed to provide support for 30 days under protest and because it did not want to disrupt Siemens’ business operations.
Siemens drew up a new product list
VMware claims that in October, Siemens tried to withdraw the previous list and hand over a new list that better corresponded with VMware’s own registration of Siemens’ licenses.
The indictment states that Siemens never provided a credible explanation for why it had handed over a list on September 9 and maintained that it was correct even if it did not correspond with the actual deployment of VMware products.
Because it was not clear exactly how extensive the use of VMware was at Siemens, and out of fear for the use of unlicensed software, VMware’s virtualization unit – now part of Broadcom – felt compelled to file a lawsuit.
VMware wants jury trial
Incidentally, VMware and Siemens were still working together in 2023 to present their joint vision for The Next Era of Global Manufacturing Technology. The chance of such a joint venture repeating itself anytime soon seems small as long as this ongoing lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed just three days before VMware announced it would change the download process for its software products.
From April 24, VMware will use one central website for product downloads. Customers will then need a “download token” to download software. Each token is customer-specific, so VMware can see who downloaded what. Some say this may have helped VMware to check whether Siemens was staying within the limits of its licenses.
A VMware spokesperson stated that the change ensures that customers and channel partners have secure and reliable access to the latest software. Questions about what is unsafe or unreliable about the current method of downloading – via shared URLs – have not yet been answered.
The change is not a simple one, because some VMware products still have the existing download links in their settings. Broadcom will offer a script to automatically replace those links. The download tokens are available through the Broadcom support portal, which is known to not always function reliably, according to some users.