diff --git a/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/util/pattern/LiteralPathElement.java b/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/util/pattern/LiteralPathElement.java
index 6c6249df1302..16af8d8ed783 100644
--- a/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/util/pattern/LiteralPathElement.java
+++ b/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/util/pattern/LiteralPathElement.java
@@ -118,6 +118,10 @@ public char[] getChars() {
 		return this.text;
 	}
 
+	@Override
+	public boolean isLiteral() {
+		return true;
+	}
 
 	@Override
 	public String toString() {
diff --git a/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/util/pattern/PathElement.java b/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/util/pattern/PathElement.java
index df4330172645..699b7bec14b5 100644
--- a/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/util/pattern/PathElement.java
+++ b/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/util/pattern/PathElement.java
@@ -25,6 +25,7 @@
  * Common supertype for the Ast nodes created to represent a path pattern.
  *
  * @author Andy Clement
+ * @author Brian Clozel
  * @since 5.0
  */
 abstract class PathElement {
@@ -99,6 +100,14 @@ public int getScore() {
 		return 0;
 	}
 
+	/**
+	 * Return whether this PathElement can be strictly {@link String#compareTo(String) compared}
+	 * against another element for matching.
+	 */
+	public boolean isLiteral() {
+		return false;
+	}
+
 	/**
 	 * Return if the there are no more PathElements in the pattern.
 	 * @return {@code true} if the there are no more elements
diff --git a/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/util/pattern/PathPattern.java b/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/util/pattern/PathPattern.java
index 8b5aee9223c5..dcf7382bd527 100644
--- a/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/util/pattern/PathPattern.java
+++ b/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/util/pattern/PathPattern.java
@@ -303,7 +303,7 @@ public PathContainer extractPathWithinPattern(PathContainer path) {
 		// Find first path element that is not a separator or a literal (i.e. the first pattern based element)
 		PathElement elem = this.head;
 		while (elem != null) {
-			if (elem.getWildcardCount() != 0 || elem.getCaptureCount() != 0) {
+			if (!elem.isLiteral()) {
 				break;
 			}
 			elem = elem.next;
diff --git a/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/util/pattern/SeparatorPathElement.java b/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/util/pattern/SeparatorPathElement.java
index b140e88b44e3..b6ba087bfb68 100644
--- a/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/util/pattern/SeparatorPathElement.java
+++ b/spring-web/src/main/java/org/springframework/web/util/pattern/SeparatorPathElement.java
@@ -67,6 +67,10 @@ public char[] getChars() {
 		return new char[] {this.separator};
 	}
 
+	@Override
+	public boolean isLiteral() {
+		return true;
+	}
 
 	@Override
 	public String toString() {
diff --git a/spring-web/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/util/pattern/PathPatternTests.java b/spring-web/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/util/pattern/PathPatternTests.java
index 97aad62e6229..eab9bfd7bcc9 100644
--- a/spring-web/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/util/pattern/PathPatternTests.java
+++ b/spring-web/src/test/java/org/springframework/web/util/pattern/PathPatternTests.java
@@ -684,6 +684,7 @@ public void extractPathWithinPattern() throws Exception {
 		checkExtractPathWithinPattern("/docs/commit.html", "/docs/commit.html", "");
 		checkExtractPathWithinPattern("/docs/*", "/docs/cvs/commit", "cvs/commit");
 		checkExtractPathWithinPattern("/docs/cvs/*.html", "/docs/cvs/commit.html", "commit.html");
+		checkExtractPathWithinPattern("/docs/cvs/file.*.html", "/docs/cvs/file.sha.html", "file.sha.html");
 		checkExtractPathWithinPattern("/docs/**", "/docs/cvs/commit", "cvs/commit");
 		checkExtractPathWithinPattern("/doo/{*foobar}", "/doo/customer.html", "customer.html");
 		checkExtractPathWithinPattern("/doo/{*foobar}", "/doo/daa/customer.html", "daa/customer.html");