diff --git a/packages/apollo-federation/src/composition/rules.ts b/packages/apollo-federation/src/composition/rules.ts
index fbbff121fa6..012ee569ed9 100644
--- a/packages/apollo-federation/src/composition/rules.ts
+++ b/packages/apollo-federation/src/composition/rules.ts
@@ -1,27 +1,58 @@
 import { specifiedSDLRules } from 'graphql/validation/specifiedRules';
 
+/**
+ * Note that, because this module has overlapping names from the two modules
+ * (graphql-js and our own, local validation rules) which we are importing from
+ * we intentionally are very explicit about the suffixes of imported members
+ * here, in order to make the intention clear.
+ *
+ * First, we'll import validation rules from graphql-js which we'll omit and
+ * replace with our own validation rules. Note that we'll take alias each of
+ * these to the same name with 'FromGraphqlJs' suffixes.
+ */
 import {
-  UniqueTypeNamesWithFields,
-  MatchingEnums,
-  PossibleTypeExtensions,
-  UniqueFieldDefinitionNames,
-  UniqueUnionTypes,
-} from './validate/sdl';
+  UniqueDirectivesPerLocation as UniqueDirectivesPerLocationFromGraphqlJs,
+} from 'graphql/validation/rules/UniqueDirectivesPerLocation';
+import {
+  UniqueTypeNames as UniqueTypeNamesFromGraphqlJs,
+} from 'graphql/validation/rules/UniqueTypeNames';
+import {
+  UniqueEnumValueNames as UniqueEnumValueNamesFromGraphqlJs,
+} from 'graphql/validation/rules/UniqueEnumValueNames';
+import {
+  PossibleTypeExtensions as PossibleTypeExtensionsFromGraphqlJs,
+} from 'graphql/validation/rules/PossibleTypeExtensions';
+import {
+  UniqueFieldDefinitionNames as UniqueFieldDefinitionNamesFromGraphqlJs,
+} from 'graphql/validation/rules/UniqueFieldDefinitionNames';
+
+/**
+ * Then, we'll import our own validation rules to take the place of those that
+ * we'll be customizing, taking care to alias them all to the same name with
+ * "FromComposition" suffixes.
+ */
+import {
+  UniqueTypeNamesWithFields as UniqueTypeNamesWithFieldsFromComposition,
+  MatchingEnums as MatchingEnumsFromComposition,
+  PossibleTypeExtensions as PossibleTypeExtensionsFromComposition,
+  UniqueFieldDefinitionNames as UniqueFieldDefinitionsNamesFromComposition,
+  UniqueUnionTypes as UniqueUnionTypesFromComposition,
+ } from './validate/sdl';
 
 const omit = [
-  'UniqueDirectivesPerLocation',
-  'UniqueTypeNames',
-  'UniqueEnumValueNames',
-  'PossibleTypeExtensions',
-  'UniqueFieldDefinitionNames',
+  UniqueDirectivesPerLocationFromGraphqlJs,
+  UniqueTypeNamesFromGraphqlJs,
+  UniqueEnumValueNamesFromGraphqlJs,
+  PossibleTypeExtensionsFromGraphqlJs,
+  UniqueFieldDefinitionNamesFromGraphqlJs,
 ];
 
 export const compositionRules = specifiedSDLRules
-  .filter(rule => !omit.includes(rule.name))
+  .filter(rule => !omit.includes(rule))
   .concat([
-    UniqueFieldDefinitionNames,
-    UniqueTypeNamesWithFields,
-    MatchingEnums,
-    UniqueUnionTypes,
-    PossibleTypeExtensions,
+    UniqueFieldDefinitionsNamesFromComposition,
+    UniqueTypeNamesWithFieldsFromComposition,
+    MatchingEnumsFromComposition,
+    UniqueUnionTypesFromComposition,
+    PossibleTypeExtensionsFromComposition,
   ]);