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A court document shows H-E-B’s 20-quart Kodi cooler, left, next to Home Depot’s 26-quart Everbilt chest cooler. The two have settled a patent-infringement lawsuit brought by H-E-B last year.

A court document shows H-E-B’s 20-quart Kodi cooler, left, next to Wadley Holdings’ G2 20-quart cooler. The two recently settled a patent-infringement lawsuit brought by H-E-B last year.

A court document shows H-E-B’s 20-quart Kodi cooler, left, next to a Kuer 20-quart cooler. H-E-B and the companies behind the Kuer cooler last year settled a patent-infringement lawsuit brought by the San Antonio grocer.

H-E-B has settled a lawsuit that alleged multiple competitors had infringed on patents for its Kodi cooler.

The latest settlement — with the Home Depot — came Monday, the day the dispute was scheduled to go to trial in Waco federal court.

H-E-B and Home Depot filed a joint motion asking a judge to dismiss their claims. It came about three weeks after they disclosed they had reached an agreement in principle to settle the dispute and asked that the case be stayed so they could finalize a deal.

Atlanta-based Home Depot, which created its own brand of coolers known as Everbilt, is the third and final defendant to settle.

The other defendants that previously settled were Georgia’s Southern Sales & Marketing Group Inc. and subsidiary nICE Coolers, and China’s Ningbo Kuer Plastic Technology Co. Ltd. and two affiliated companies that are behind Kuer coolers.

Terms of each settlement were not disclosed.

On ExpressNews.com: H-E-B loses its cool over competing coolers

H-E-B filed its complaint in January 2020. Its claims centered on a patented pressure-release button on the exterior of its Kodi coolers. Depressing the button releases pressure inside the cooler and makes it easier to open the lid.

Everbilt, nICE and Kuer coolers have utilized a pressure-release button, which the San Antonio grocer said infringed on four of its patents.

H-E-B spokeswoman Dya Campos declined to comment on the settlements Tuesday.

At the time H-E-B sued, she said it invests heavily in “innovation” to provide its customers “the best quality products.”

“As a result, we cannot be idle spectators while others use without permission the intellectual property H-E-B and its partners have worked so hard to develop,” Campos said. “While we would prefer to not go to court, H-E-B will vigorously fight to protect our investments and brand.”

Representatives for each of the defendants did not respond to a request for comment.

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Home Depot and Southern Sales denied in court filings that they infringed on H-E-B patents. Each filed counterclaims asking the court to declare they had not copied the Kodi’s pressure-release valve and that H-E-B’s patents were invalid.

H-E-B’s lawsuit said Brett Ramsey, its senior buyer for grills and coolers, began exploring better cooler technology after a “frustrating” experience with his brother-in-law’s cooler while on his boat.

That led H-E-B to two Kentucky inventors who had created “improved cooler technology.” Eric Wooldridge and Daniel Bailey had filed an application to patent the technology in 2012.

In 2015, H-E-B acquired rights to the patent application for an undisclosed amount. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a patent to H-E-B the following year.

H-E-B subsequently received four more patents that “claim various embodiments of a pressure release system for a vacuum cooler and improve the usability of the cooler,” the lawsuit said.

Patrick Danner is a business reporter for the San Antonio Express-News.