When we launched Beeman & Muchmore, LLP on June 1, 2020, amid the uncertainty of the COVID pandemic, we bet on a different kind of law firm: one that is first and last about serving clients on a platform that is lean and specialized. Our breaking from BigLaw’s bloated and archaic model to build a law firm more responsive to client demands and market imperatives has been an opportunity too good to be true. When we started, no law firm was offering what we do today – the gold standard for legal counseling in the world of software licensing, staking our unique claim to an exclusive microspeciality in the global enterprise resource planning (ERP) software market.
As milestones go, it is certainly appropriate for us to be celebrating Beeman & Muchmore's 5-year anniversary. But since we couldn’t have done it without our amazing clients, it is even more appropriate to be sharing our accomplishments by way of a look at the current state of software licensing and a bit about how we got to where we are today.
Considering what we have observed over the last five years while serving clients and responding to the market, we believe, as we have from the start, that the best is yet to be. Not because the past five years have been free of challenges for our clients (and the legal industry as a whole), but because we still believe that Beeman & Muchmore has created a business model that best enables our clients to meet the challenges of tomorrow.
What better way to usher in our five-year anniversary year than with a recap/projection?
Companies large and small are underestimating the risk of software audits, and the numbers prove it. A 2025 survey by LicenseFortress shows that more than 62% of companies were audited last year. Compare that to just 40% only two years ago. This is an unsettling trend for businesses — and there is no sign that it is slowing down. It is increasingly clear that software audits aren't just an occasional minor inconvenience. They are a practical reality that represent a potentially massive threat to your business. You can read more about the survey's results in one of our latest blog posts.
How best to summarize what we have seen in Beeman & Muchmore’s five years of assisting Oracle licensees? A near-ubiquity in Oracle’s auditing script? For sure. A martial tenacity? Absolutely. A measure of predictability? Yes. Treachery? Certainly. But it is also important to underscore what we have not seen. A cause for futility. Overall pointlessness. A reason for despair.
Our experience and credentials are as straightforward as they are hard-fought. We have handled dozens of aggressive Oracle licensing inquiries of every tone and tenor and anticipate handling dozens more in the next five years. (Especially as Oracle launches wave after wave after wave of Java inquiries.) And, as shown by Oracle’s extraordinary recent earning report and stock surge, Oracle has little incentive to deviate from its longstanding playbook.
The bottom line remains simple. If your company is not currently under Oracle’s scrutiny, it likely will be soon. Be careful. Be cautious. And get help.
Though the stirrings of the phenomenon predate the founding of Beeman & Muchmore, the emergence of Software License Trolls largely went unnoticed before we began writing and speaking about this dangerous market phenomenon. Again and again. And again.
What are software license trolls? In sum, venture capital is fueling the acquisition of, and working behind the scenes to control, once-respected software vendors who, in turn, shock their long-term users for demands of millions of dollars in alleged unpaid fees and penalties. And, because it appears to be working, we see no reason to forecast that this phenomenon will disappear anytime soon. (See, e.g., the recent, highly profitable, sales of Micro Focus and Quest.)
And, now, beware of the new troll on the block: Apryse/iText. We have been contacted by companies of all sizes on several continents that have been targeted by Apryse with regard to the use of iText, a popular library for creating PDFs. Because iText is nominally open-source, Apryse’s inquiries are often initially treated as benign, even friendly. However, as we have seen time and time again, once sufficient information is gathered, the extortionist demands begin.
Our advice? Treat every software vendor inquiry with the severity of a formal contractual audit. And, if you see or hear of any troll-like behavior, please do not hesitate to let us know. It’s how we stay sufficiently informed to alert the market.
We will soon be writing more about the vipers nest created by VMware, but suffice to say the developments here have massive consequences for not only current and future VMware licensees but also the world of software licensing as a whole. In sum, Broadcom purchased VMware in late November 2023 for an eye-watering $61B and has proceeded to reduce its offerings to a small handful of product suites. Tellingly, Broadcom is laboring to transition their licensees to subscription licenses.
But don’t just take our word for it: these changes are front and center in Broadcom’s December 2023 FAQ outlining changes to VMware licensing. Naturally, Broadcom’s FAQ soft-peddles the lengths that Broadcom appears willing to go to pry perpetual licenses from the hands of long-standing clients, and, further, is silent about the devastating loss of leverage that comes when a licensee surrenders perpetual licenses – a bona fide property asset – for subscription licenses that must be renegotiated and renewed indefinitely. It has been our experience that Broadcom is using its increased leverage to extract staggering price increases and non-favorable terms from licensees. Those companies that do decide to opt out of these forced changes and to otherwise adjust their relationship with Broadcom are reportedly facing aggressive audits and troubling cease and desist letters.
If you are one of the scores of long-standing VMware licensees struggling with these changes, do not go at it alone! We are counseling multiple VMware licensees through these challenges and would be happy to hear your company’s story.
We recently shared a blog post about Trump-era executive orders targeting law firms and shared that we had aligned ourselves with nearly 1,000 other law firms and legal professionals in the filing of amicus curiae briefs to rally behind the targeted firms and protect our profession.
Law firm responses to Trump’s executive orders have run the gamut from sheer cowardice and capitulation, on the one hand, to, on the other, defiance and professional integrity. As a result, we have witnessed a wave of consequences that continue to ripple through the legal and corporate sectors. In an era where standing up — or not — can define your law firm, clients are making clear where they want their legal representation to draw the line. For example, multiple corporations, including Morgan Stanley, Microsoft, and McDonald’s, began distancing themselves from law firms that chose accommodation over confrontation. Generally, an encouraging and long-overdue sentiment appears to be emerging that if a law firm doesn’t advocate for itself, how can it be trusted to advocate for its clients?
Stay tuned for our next update on the fallout and how the legal industry is realigning.
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Thanks again for five great years!
Published on June 26, 2025
Software licensors are known for vague contracts—they’ve made a business of it.
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