diff --git a/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/shared/utils/xml/Xpp3DomUtils.java b/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/shared/utils/xml/Xpp3DomUtils.java
index 1b10dc8c..985c5592 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/shared/utils/xml/Xpp3DomUtils.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/shared/utils/xml/Xpp3DomUtils.java
@@ -148,15 +148,15 @@ private static boolean isMergeChildren( Xpp3Dom dominant )
     }
 
     /**
-     * @param str The string to be checked.
-     * @return <code>true</code> in case string is empty <code>false</code> otherwise.
+     * @deprecated use <code>str == null || String.isBlank(str)</code> (Java 11+) 
+     *             or <code>org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils.isBlank(str)</code>
+     * @param str the string to be checked
+     * @return <code>true</code> if the string is null, empty, or whitespace only; <code>false</code> otherwise
      */
+    @Deprecated
     public static boolean isEmpty( String str )
     {
         return str == null || str.trim().length() == 0;
     }
 
-
-
-
 }