VMware, now part of Broadcom’s revenue-maximising empire, has slapped Siemens’s US operations with a lawsuit, accusing the industrial giant of deploying more software than it paid for and then throwing a corporate tantrum when asked to explain itself.

Filed in the Delaware District Court, the complaint alleges that Siemens’s September 2024 inventory of VMware software included enough unlicensed product to make a pirate blush. And yet, Siemens not only insisted the list was gospel truth, it demanded support for it. They even threatened to sue VMware if they didn’t comply.

VMware, sensing Siemens was playing license bingo with its product catalogue, reluctantly agreed to 30 days of support "under protest"—a polite corporate way of saying, “We’ll help you, but we’re keeping receipts.”

Siemens changed its story in October, swapped out the original list for one that magically aligned with VMware’s records, and still offered no explanation for why its first list looked like a virtualisation fever dream. VMware was unimpressed.

Siemens refused a software audit, a common practice that most customers accept without complaint. However, Siemens prefers the Schrödinger’s License approach—if no one audits it, perhaps the unlicensed software both exists and doesn’t.

Broadcom, now holding VMware’s legal leash, wasn’t having it. With access to binaries soon gated behind per-customer “download tokens,” they’re making it crystal clear that freeloaders will be hunted down.

In 2023, VMware and Siemens teamed to showcase their shared vision for "The Next Era of Global Manufacturing Technology". We suspect that any shared visions will be a thing of the past while this case is in motion.