diff --git a/check_api/src/main/java/com/google/errorprone/util/ASTHelpers.java b/check_api/src/main/java/com/google/errorprone/util/ASTHelpers.java
index 47a668aefa7..09430a8c9a7 100644
--- a/check_api/src/main/java/com/google/errorprone/util/ASTHelpers.java
+++ b/check_api/src/main/java/com/google/errorprone/util/ASTHelpers.java
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@
 import static com.google.common.collect.ImmutableSet.toImmutableSet;
 import static com.google.common.collect.Iterables.getOnlyElement;
 import static com.google.common.collect.Streams.stream;
+import static com.google.errorprone.VisitorState.memoize;
 import static com.google.errorprone.matchers.JUnitMatchers.JUNIT4_RUN_WITH_ANNOTATION;
 import static com.google.errorprone.matchers.Matchers.isSubtypeOf;
 import static com.sun.tools.javac.code.Scope.LookupKind.NON_RECURSIVE;
@@ -913,6 +914,14 @@ private static boolean isInherited(VisitorState state, Name annotationName) {
         .get(
             annotationName,
             name -> {
+              if (name.equals(NULL_MARKED_NAME.get(state))) {
+                /*
+                 * We avoid searching for @Inherited on NullMarked not just because we already know
+                 * the answer but also because the search would cause issues under --release 8 on
+                 * account of NullMarked's use of @Target(MODULE, ...).
+                 */
+                return false;
+              }
               Symbol annotationSym = state.getSymbolFromName(annotationName);
               if (annotationSym == null) {
                 return false;
@@ -2830,5 +2839,8 @@ public static Stream<? extends ExpressionTree> getCaseExpressions(CaseTree caseT
     }
   }
 
+  private static final Supplier<Name> NULL_MARKED_NAME =
+      memoize(state -> state.getName("org.jspecify.annotations.NullMarked"));
+
   private ASTHelpers() {}
 }