Photo: Getty Images
McDonald's ice cream machine has a reputation that exceeds it. If you're lucky enough to go to a McDonald's and the ice cream machine is working, you should play the lottery.
The machine that makes McDonald's McFlurries breaks down all the time. According to WIFR the problem is so frequent that someone built a bot to keep track of which machines are broken across all 14,000 McDonald's locations in the United States. Recently the problem has been less frequent in part because an independent company called Kytch has made a device that helps McDonald's franchise owners repair the ice cream machines and keep the Mcflurries flowing.
Taylor, the company that makes the Mcflurry Machine, had a monopoly on the repairs of ice cream machines and has tried to maintain that monopoly by telling McDonald's franchises that using Kytch devices could cause "serious human injury" according to the lawsuit filed by Kytch.
Kytch won an important legal fight against Taylor when a California judge issued a temporary restraining order against Taylor after Kytch claimed Taylor acquired a Kytch Solution Device in an attempt to learn its secrets. Kytch believes that Taylor got a Mcdonald's franchisee to acquire a Kytch device for the company, which could then mine it for "trade secret information."
Taylor's COO admits that it sought to obtain a Kytch device in order to evaluate and assess its potential technology-related impacts on our Soft Serve Machine but denied that Taylor mined it for trade secrets or even "need such information."
The ice cream machine maker, Taylor, now has to turn over all its ill-gotten Kytch Solution Devices within 24 hours of the court order. "Defendants must not use, copy, disclose, or otherwise make available in any way information, including formula pattern, compilation program, device, method, technique, or process obtained by any of them." the court document said.