Google inches closer on its quest to formally acquire Motorola Mobility with two clearances it received Monday from government regulators in the United States and the European Union.

The $US12.5-billion acquisition of the firm that invented the mobile phone will give Google ownership to existing 17,000 patents and 7500 patent applications that experts said the internet giant can use to its advantage in light of the growing legal challenges between tech firms.

Most of these courtroom tussles were motivated by patent claims, such as the celebrated legal showdown currently underway between Apple and Samsung.

First to approve Google's purchase of Motorola Mobility is the EU regulators, which had scrutinised that deal would not dampen the competition environment between tech industry players in the region.

"We have approved the acquisition of Motorola Mobility by Google because, upon careful examination, this transaction does not itself raise competition issues," EU antitrust commissioner Joaquin Almunia was reported by Agence France Presse (AFP) as saying in a statement.

"It is unlikely that Google would restrict the use of Android solely to Motorola, a minor player in the European Economic Area ... and Google already had many ways in which to incentivize customers to take up its services and that the acquisition of Motorola would not materially change this," Almunia added.

He added though that EU will monitor Google's behaviour in the immediate aftermath of the deal as "Google can abuse these patents, linking some patents with its Android devices."

On its part, the U.S. Justice Department said that following its careful review of the Google-Motorola Mobility merger, its Antitrust Division arrived at the conclusion that "the specific transactions at issue are not likely to significantly change existing market dynamics."

And like its European counterpart, the Antitrust Division made known its reservations on how the new Google acquisition will play out in years to come.

"The division determined that the acquisition of the patents by Google did not substantially lessen competition, but how Google may exercise its patents in the future remains a significant concern," the Justice Department's division said in a statement.

The only remaining hurdle for Google to finalise its deal with Motorola is the regulatory checks coming from Israel, Taiwan and China, with the latter, according to the Associated Press (AP) poised to give the search giant some worries.

Google has been at odds with Beijing over hacking claims that the internet giant levelled against the Chinese authorities, with the rift punctuated by Google's decision to move its operations out of China in 2010.