Digital Event Horizon
Broadcom's VMware has filed a lawsuit against the US arm of industrial giant AG Siemens, alleging that the German conglomerate pirated thousands of copies of its software. The company claims that Siemens sent it a list of products that it had allegedly downloaded and distributed without purchasing a license, despite having produced a truthful assessment of the virtualization company's offerings.
Vmware has filed a lawsuit against Siemens, alleging that the German conglomerate pirated thousands of copies of its software. Siemens sent VMware a list of products it had allegedly downloaded and distributed without purchasing a license, leading to the lawsuit. Siemens had previously received support services from VMware for products it had not paid for, and VMware claims it was misled into doing so. Vmware is seeking damages, profits, and a jury trial against Siemens in this dispute.
Ars Technica has uncovered a new lawsuit filed by Broadcom's VMware against the US arm of industrial giant AG Siemens, alleging that Siemens pirated thousands of copies of its software. The lawsuit, which was filed on March 21 in the US District Court for the District of Delaware, marks the latest development in a long-running dispute between the two companies.
At the heart of this new lawsuit is a claim by VMware that Siemens sent it a list of the virtualization company's products that it had allegedly downloaded and distributed without purchasing a license. According to the complaint filed by VMware, the list included "thousands" of copies of its software, with Siemens reportedly seeking support for a large number of products for which VMware had no record of the German conglomerate purchasing a license.
The dispute appears to have begun when Siemens sent VMware a purchase order for maintenance and support services in September. The company was reportedly looking to exercise an option to renew support services for certain eligible licensed products, but the list of products that it provided included a number of titles for which VMware had no record of Siemens AG purchasing a license.
Despite the discrepancy, VMware ultimately agreed to provide Siemens with the requested support services "in order to avoid the possibility of interrupting Siemens's business operations" and under threat of litigation from Siemens. However, the company has now claimed that it was misled by Siemens into providing support for products that it had not paid for, and is seeking damages and other relief as a result.
Siemens has resisted VMware's attempts to audit its systems to determine how much of its software the German conglomerate was running, according to the complaint. The company allegedly demanded support from VMware after receiving the list, despite having produced a truthful assessment of the virtualization company's offerings.
This latest development in the dispute between VMware and Siemens is not the first time that the two companies have found themselves embroiled in a licensing dispute. In 2020, Broadcom acquired VMware for $7 billion, and since then, the company has been involved in several high-profile disputes with customers and partners over licensing agreements.
One of these disputes was settled earlier this year when AT&T reached a settlement with Broadcom's VMware over claims that it had unlawfully denied the telecommunications company a one-year renewal of support services. In another case, VMware was sued by Oracle over allegations that it had infringed on the software giant's copyrights. The lawsuit has since been dismissed.
VMware is seeking a jury trial, damages, and "any profits attributable to Siemens' infringing activities as to VMware's copyrighted software products," according to the complaint filed with the court. The company is also seeking "any profits attributable to [Siemens'] infringement of its Master Software License and Service Agreement."
Ars Technica reached out to both companies for comment on this story but did not receive a response in time for publication.
Related Information:
https://www.digitaleventhorizon.com/articles/Broadcoms-VMware-Sues-Siemens-for-Alleged-Software-Piracy-deh.shtml
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2025/03/broadcoms-vmware-says-siemens-pirated-thousands-of-copies-of-its-software/
Published: Wed Mar 26 13:37:10 2025 by llama3.2 3B Q4_K_M
