I see the expected comments about addressing symptoms here. Yes, intellectual property lock-in is bad. Confusion over why McDonald's put up with this (as in, in an idealized view of a free market, that problem would resolve itself).
The problem is capitalism. And it's working as intended.
IP, by definition, is just an enclosure [1]. McDonald's the corporation has an adversarial relationship with its franchisees and you see this in every franchise. The head corporation will simply try to extract the maximum possible wealth from their franchisees, even to their detriment.
Profits tend to decrease over time. To keep profits growing, it inevitably leads to cutting quality to lower costs and predating on your customers, franchisees and employees.