diff --git a/plugins/devkit/testData/inspections/capitalization/EmptySentence.java b/plugins/devkit/testData/inspections/capitalization/EmptySentence.java
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..33e9466731cf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/plugins/devkit/testData/inspections/capitalization/EmptySentence.java
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+import org.jetbrains.annotations.Nls;
+
+class TitleCapitalization  {
+    @Nls(capitalization = Nls.Capitalization.Sentence)
+    public String getName() {
+        return "";
+    }
+}
diff --git a/plugins/java-i18n/src/com/intellij/codeInspection/capitalization/TitleCapitalizationInspection.java b/plugins/java-i18n/src/com/intellij/codeInspection/capitalization/TitleCapitalizationInspection.java
index f22ebf8460c2..8adef3bdb754 100644
--- a/plugins/java-i18n/src/com/intellij/codeInspection/capitalization/TitleCapitalizationInspection.java
+++ b/plugins/java-i18n/src/com/intellij/codeInspection/capitalization/TitleCapitalizationInspection.java
@@ -169,7 +169,7 @@ public class TitleCapitalizationInspection extends BaseJavaLocalInspectionTool {
   }
 
   private static boolean checkCapitalization(String value, Nls.Capitalization capitalization) {
-    if (value == null || capitalization == Nls.Capitalization.NotSpecified) {
+    if (StringUtil.isEmpty(value) || capitalization == Nls.Capitalization.NotSpecified) {
       return true;
     }
     value = value.replace("&", "");
diff --git a/plugins/java-i18n/testSrc/com/intellij/codeInspection/CapitalizationInspectionTest.java b/plugins/java-i18n/testSrc/com/intellij/codeInspection/CapitalizationInspectionTest.java
index 8f478184aa77..05e59fadf3ff 100644
--- a/plugins/java-i18n/testSrc/com/intellij/codeInspection/CapitalizationInspectionTest.java
+++ b/plugins/java-i18n/testSrc/com/intellij/codeInspection/CapitalizationInspectionTest.java
@@ -38,6 +38,10 @@ public class CapitalizationInspectionTest extends LightCodeInsightFixtureTestCas
   public void testMultipleReturns() throws Exception {
     doTest(true);
   }
+  
+  public void testEmptySentence() {
+    doTest(false);
+  }
 
   public void testArgument() throws Exception {
     doTest(false);