diff --git a/log4j-1.2-api/src/main/java/org/apache/log4j/config/Log4j1ConfigurationParser.java b/log4j-1.2-api/src/main/java/org/apache/log4j/config/Log4j1ConfigurationParser.java
index be810249b1d..3a202f0c2bf 100644
--- a/log4j-1.2-api/src/main/java/org/apache/log4j/config/Log4j1ConfigurationParser.java
+++ b/log4j-1.2-api/src/main/java/org/apache/log4j/config/Log4j1ConfigurationParser.java
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ public class Log4j1ConfigurationParser {
      *
      * @param input
      *            InputStream to read from is assumed to be ISO 8859-1, and will not be closed.
-     * @return the populated ConfigurationBuilder, never {@literal null}
+     * @return the populated ConfigurationBuilder, never {@code null}
      * @throws IOException
      *             if unable to read the input
      * @throws ConfigurationException
diff --git a/log4j-api/src/main/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/LogBuilder.java b/log4j-api/src/main/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/LogBuilder.java
index 75af9a387f3..2394b84bf51 100644
--- a/log4j-api/src/main/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/LogBuilder.java
+++ b/log4j-api/src/main/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/LogBuilder.java
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ default void log(Supplier<Message> messageSupplier) {
      * Causes all the data collected to be logged along with the message.
      *
      * @param messageSupplier The supplier of the message to log.
-     * @return the message logger or {@literal null} if no logging occurred.
+     * @return the message logger or {@code null} if no logging occurred.
      * @since 2.20
      */
     default Message logAndGet(final Supplier<Message> messageSupplier) {
diff --git a/log4j-core/src/main/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/core/parser/LogEventParser.java b/log4j-core/src/main/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/core/parser/LogEventParser.java
index 6d071bd0b82..03f96c117c2 100644
--- a/log4j-core/src/main/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/core/parser/LogEventParser.java
+++ b/log4j-core/src/main/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/core/parser/LogEventParser.java
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@ public interface LogEventParser {
      *
      * @param input  the byte array
      *
-     * @return the parsed LogEvent, never {@literal null}.
+     * @return the parsed LogEvent, never {@code null}.
      * @throws ParseException if the input is malformed and cannot be parsed as a LogEvent
      */
     LogEvent parseFrom(byte[] input) throws ParseException;
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ public interface LogEventParser {
      * @param offset  the initial offset
      * @param length  the length
      *
-     * @return the parsed LogEvent, never {@literal null}.
+     * @return the parsed LogEvent, never {@code null}.
      * @throws ParseException if the input is malformed and cannot be parsed as a LogEvent
      */
     LogEvent parseFrom(byte[] input, int offset, int length) throws ParseException;
diff --git a/log4j-core/src/main/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/core/parser/TextLogEventParser.java b/log4j-core/src/main/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/core/parser/TextLogEventParser.java
index 2ef2bc3dd79..1560c78f918 100644
--- a/log4j-core/src/main/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/core/parser/TextLogEventParser.java
+++ b/log4j-core/src/main/java/org/apache/logging/log4j/core/parser/TextLogEventParser.java
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ public interface TextLogEventParser extends LogEventParser {
      *
      * @param input  the string
      *
-     * @return the parsed LogEvent, never {@literal null}.
+     * @return the parsed LogEvent, never {@code null}.
      * @throws ParseException if the input is malformed and cannot be parsed as a LogEvent
      */
     LogEvent parseFrom(String input) throws ParseException;