diff --git a/org.eclipse.xtext.util/src/org/eclipse/xtext/util/internal/Nullable.java b/org.eclipse.xtext.util/src/org/eclipse/xtext/util/internal/Nullable.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..cd5e74b5a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/org.eclipse.xtext.util/src/org/eclipse/xtext/util/internal/Nullable.java
@@ -0,0 +1,24 @@
+/*******************************************************************************
+ * Copyright (c) 2017 itemis AG (http://www.itemis.eu) and others.
+ * All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials
+ * are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0
+ * which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
+ * http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
+ *******************************************************************************/
+package org.eclipse.xtext.util.internal;
+
+import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
+import java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy;
+
+/**
+ * This annotation is not intended to be used to do null analysis.
+ * The only purpose is to allow Google Guice to inject @Inject(optional=true)
places with null
instances.
+ *
+ * @author Christian Dietrich - Initial contribution and API
+ *
+ * @since 2.12
+ */
+@Retention(RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME)
+public @interface Nullable {
+
+}