LOS ANGELES, April 23 (UPI) -- Medical device maker Medtronic has announced it will pay $1.35 billion to gain ownership of patents related to spinal surgery from a Los Angeles inventor.

The payment will also go towards settling litigation settlement between the Medtronic and Dr. Gary Michelson after a federal jury ruled that Medtronic should pay $559 million to the inventor and his company, Karlin Technology, the New York Times reported Saturday.

However, the parties have agreed that Medtronic will pay $550 million to settle the lawsuit and another $800 million to acquire the patents. The deal will also give Medtronic rights to any spine-related inventions Michelson creates in the next 15 years.

Michelson said he was pleased with the deal and that he hoped to work with Medtronic to help the company make use of his patents. He said he had been too busy to do any inventing since the litigation began in 2001.

"I'm obviously very pleased that we can put this behind and move ahead and do something that is actually going to help somebody," he said. Michelson said he would put at least $200 million of the money into a medical foundation he is starting.

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