McDonald's soft ice cream machines in the United States are famous for their fragility. To solve this problem, Kytch, a small startup, has been developing and selling devices that are installed on machines for improvement for many years. However, in the hands of fast-food giant McDonald's, Kytch's business has come to an end along with the hopes of many customers who want to buy McFally.

Now, Kytch burns "revenge" coldly. A lawsuit was filed against McDonald's on the evening of March 1 (US time) for revenge of about $1 billion (about 115 billion yen).

According to the complaint filed by Kytch, McDonald's illegally interfered in its contract with Kytch customers through false claims. Kytch co-founders Melissa Nelson and Jeremy O'Sullivan are seeking damages of no less than $900 million (104 billion yen).

Kytch has developed a device the size of a mobile phone, designed and installed in a McDonald's ointment machine in the United States, and has been on sale since 19. The device monitors the communication within the ointment machine and transmits the data to the network and smartphone interface. This is a mechanism that allows car owners to remotely monitor machines with more "defects" and deal with them, such as maintenance. And the more jokes are made among McDonald's customers, the more widely recognized the device is.

Kytch's co-founders' claim for damages focused on an e-mail sent by McDonald's to all licensed stores across the country in November 20. This is an email instructing that Kytch's DeVais be removed from the soft ice cream machine immediately.

In these emails, McDonald's reminded licensed stores that the Kytch device violated the warranty of the soft ice cream machine and was used to monitor "confidential information." He also warned that this would not only pose a security threat, but could also lead to "serious personal injury." With regard to these claims, Kytch explained that they were unfounded defamation.

He also pointed out that McDonald's had used these emails to promote new soft ice cream machines with the same functions as Kytch's devices. The new machine is made by Taylor Company, a maker of ointment machines that McDonald's has been working with for many years, but it is not yet popular and has only a few experimental settings.

Nelson, one of the co-founders of Kytch, said McDonald's soft ice cream machines around the world were still damaged because of the email. As of Feb. 28, one out of every seven machines in the United States was still malfunctioning, according to McBroken.com, a website that tracks the problem in real time.

However, the impact of email is not limited to this. Kytch's career is beginning to get back on track, and sales are expanding rapidly, so it has also caused a big blow to its career.

"I hurt our reputation. Scared our customers, dispersed our customers, and destroyed our business. This is anti-competitive behavior. I am also lying about the products that have been said to be on the market, "said Nelson of Kytch. "McDonald's has enough evidence to see that Kytch is safe and there is no problem. This is not as dangerous as that proposition. That's why we're suing McDonald's. "