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American and European regulators have approved Google’s purchase of handset maker Motorola Mobility. The deal is worth a reported $12,5 billion and Google is said to be pleased at acquiring 17 000 new patents, and a further 7 500 patent applications as part of the deal.

The great smartphone war just got bigger.

The US Department of Justice and the European Commission have given the go-ahead and approved Google’s $12,5 billion procurement of Motorola Mobility.

This latest deal has however sparked renewed anticipation that there will be some heated legal battles arising over the technology behind smartphone devices in the imminent future.

This is partly because Apple is starting to get really fastidious about certain things like suing Samsung over the “slide-to-unlock” feature, and searching multiple sources of information at once, for example.

But, more importantly, a deal like this spells endless opportunity for Google and its Android operating system, which after all, is the most widely used smartphone operating system in the world.

EU Competition Commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, ironically said Google will be watched closely in this regard:

This merger decision should not and will not mean that we are not concerned by the possibility that, once Google is the owner of this portfolio, Google can abuse these patents, linking some patents with its Android devices. This is our worry. This is not enough to block the merger, but we will be vigilant.

There are numerous licensing agreements that come with the purchase and the regulators explained they’d also be keeping an eye on Google to ensure patents critical to the telecommunications industries would continue to be leased in a fair manner.

China, Taiwan and Israel must also give their approval before the deal is finalised.

[Source: SkyNews]