VMware and Siemens spar over where to stage software licence showdown
- Reference: 1750051872
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/06/16/vmware_vs_siemens/
- Source link:
VMware [1]filed the case in March, when it alleged that Siemens and some of its related companies in the US had used many instances of unlicensed software, a fact that came to light during negotiations over extended support contracts for the German company’s perpetual licenses.
After its acquisition by Broadcom, VMware stopped selling support contracts for perpetually licensed software and instead bundled support and subscriptions for its wares. As was the case when [2]AT&T sued VMware , Siemens tried to buy more support services without moving to subscriptions.
[3]
During negotiations over the support deals, Siemens provided a list of the VMware software it used. After reading that list, VMware contended Siemens was using more software than its licenses allow. After negotiations stumbled, VMware sued.
[4]
[5]
The District Court of Delaware gave Siemens until June 10th to respond to VMware’s accusations.
That day arrived last week, and a flurry of filings flowed.
[6]Broadcom starts beta for VMware Cloud Foundation 9, the release it reckons will douse user anger
[7]Broadcom sends VMware to record revenue, margins, as most big customers sign for private cloud bundles
[8]VMware drops the lowest tier of its partner program – except in Europe
[9]Cisco returns to load balancing market as it chases VMware refugees
Siemens argued that it long ago struck a Master Software License Agreement (MSLA) with Irish entity VMware International Unlimited Company, and that the deal included a “forum selection clause” that specifies the courts of Munich, Germany, as the jurisdiction in which the two parties will resolve any disputes about the contract.
Siemens states that VMware recognizes the forum selection clause: Why else would the two companies have exchanged ten letters about this matter in Germany?
[10]
The German company therefore asked the District Court of Delaware, where VMware filed the case, to dismiss the matter.
VMware retorted that because some of Siemens’ US-based companies used unlicensed software, Delaware is the right place to hold a trial.
In their respective filings, the two companies also spar over whether a copyright claim is the appropriate issue on which to consider the matter.
[11]
Siemens argues it’s a dispute over a contract. VMware claims that as US copyright law protects its products, an American court is the place to run the case.
Siemens claims it doesn’t run the US-based entities VMware has sued. VMware says they’re valid defendants.
The court has so far said nothing in public – although the [12]case file contains some unreleased documents.
The matter continues. The Register is watching. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/26/vmware_sues_siemens_for_using/
[2] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/05/att_sues_broadcom_vmware_support/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aE_rNC5oSSuHI12hjzWzxQAAAhM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aE_rNC5oSSuHI12hjzWzxQAAAhM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aE_rNC5oSSuHI12hjzWzxQAAAhM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/04/vmware_vcf_9_beta_starts/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/06/broadcom_q2_2025/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/01/vmware_channel_changes/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/11/cisco_load_balancing_ebpf/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aE_rNC5oSSuHI12hjzWzxQAAAhM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offbeat/legal&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aE_rNC5oSSuHI12hjzWzxQAAAhM&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://www.pacermonitor.com/public/case/57346236/VMware_LLC_v_Siemens_AG_et_al
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
"bank with an attached electric appliance department"
They used to say the same of GEC-Marconi. They took the piss out of Lord Weinstock - the CEO - for having a huge cash mountain and not using it to buy companies. Then, after Weinstock went and the dot-com bubble hit its peak they spent their cash mountain on expensive but worthless start-ups and the company almost disappeared. When the bubble burst the shares went from £12 to 12p overnight; I've got many friends who worked there and their pension funds were gutted. So maybe Siemens isn't the behemoth that it once was, but at still has a market cap higher than Lockheed or Boeing and, more importantly, still exists. Of the 12,000 people Marconi once employed in Chelmsford there are about 100 left working for BAE who bought the business before it, effectively, went bust.
That is true. But Siemens Halbleiter and Siemens Datentechnik (which then merged with Nixdorf to save them and became Siemens-Nixdorf) are shadows of their former selves. Siemens used to be like the Japanese kaigyou: a job for life. So many of my former coworkers took early retirement, left outright or, in the end, were even made redundant.
Still using VMWare and Oracle and Unity...
...after all these years it's still bizarre to me that people do this to themselves.
Re: Still using VMWare and Oracle and Unity...
I was first thinking of it as a variation of [1]Stockholm syndrome , but that's not quite the right description. After a bit more looking, I think [2]traumatic bonding is more like it.
But in a business sense, I think there's an element of "this hurts, but to change will hurt more" (a finance version of traumatic bonding ?) - and the longer things go on, the more entrenched the tech becomes, and the more it will hurt to change. If you look at how MS has got to where it is (I'm not familiar enough with VMware to comment on that), it's slowly moved the goalposts over time, each time the change has been detrimental to users, but it's been small enough not to trigger the "f*** this, they've gone too far this time" response - and also over time they've carefully crafted an intricate web of interdependency designed top make it ever harder for any third party to replace any of the tools in the MS ecosystem (thus making it almost an "all or nothing" choice whether to move to something else.)
In the case of Adobe, they got to where they were by providing damn good tools - to the point that they were the de-facto standard in the creative industry. But then they did a big-bang switch to subscriptions and the users found they didn't have any other viable options than to go with it or quit the industry.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traumatic_bonding
I was working for a large South Korean company with offices in the UK. We were purchasing some equipment from Japan. The contract had the legal jurisdiction of Germany. When I queried this the answer was we have a German lawyer.
Once upon a time, Siemens was a giant - we used to jokingly call it a "bank with an attached electric appliance department" - that would have bought someone like Broadcom, never mind VMware with the spare change behind the cushions. Just to then unceremoniously fire every single exec.How the mighty have fallen.