Patentability and novelty search is an essential part of any patent application. It ensures that the idea that should be patented has not already been registered anywhere else in the world. However, this task is complicated by the large number of documents and the fact that they are written in many different languages. In this paper we survey four approaches that will help to automate the task and share the insights we have gained through our participation in the CLEF-IP Workshop 2013.