diff --git a/maven-artifact/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/artifact/versioning/ComparableVersion.java b/maven-artifact/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/artifact/versioning/ComparableVersion.java
index 64e07cde497..811bab2f5eb 100644
--- a/maven-artifact/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/artifact/versioning/ComparableVersion.java
+++ b/maven-artifact/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/artifact/versioning/ComparableVersion.java
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@
  * <p>
  * Generic implementation of version comparison.
  * </p>
- * 
+ *
  * Features:
  * <ul>
  * <li>mixing of '<code>-</code>' (hyphen) and '<code>.</code>' (dot) separators,</li>
@@ -361,6 +361,7 @@ private static class StringItem
         {
             ALIASES.put( "ga", "" );
             ALIASES.put( "final", "" );
+            ALIASES.put( "release", "" );
             ALIASES.put( "cr", "rc" );
         }
 
diff --git a/maven-artifact/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/artifact/versioning/ComparableVersionTest.java b/maven-artifact/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/artifact/versioning/ComparableVersionTest.java
index ce7df2dfa34..70fc1d8ecc1 100644
--- a/maven-artifact/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/artifact/versioning/ComparableVersionTest.java
+++ b/maven-artifact/src/test/java/org/apache/maven/artifact/versioning/ComparableVersionTest.java
@@ -135,6 +135,7 @@ public void testVersionsEqual()
 
         // aliases
         checkVersionsEqual( "1ga", "1" );
+        checkVersionsEqual( "1release", "1" );
         checkVersionsEqual( "1final", "1" );
         checkVersionsEqual( "1cr", "1rc" );
 
@@ -150,6 +151,9 @@ public void testVersionsEqual()
         checkVersionsEqual( "1M", "1m" );
         checkVersionsEqual( "1Ga", "1" );
         checkVersionsEqual( "1GA", "1" );
+        checkVersionsEqual( "1RELEASE", "1" );
+        checkVersionsEqual( "1release", "1" );
+        checkVersionsEqual( "1RELeaSE", "1" );
         checkVersionsEqual( "1Final", "1" );
         checkVersionsEqual( "1FinaL", "1" );
         checkVersionsEqual( "1FINAL", "1" );
@@ -229,7 +233,7 @@ public void testMng6572()
 
     /**
      * Test all versions are equal when starting with many leading zeroes regardless of string length
-     * (related to MNG-6572 optimization) 
+     * (related to MNG-6572 optimization)
      */
     public void testVersionEqualWithLeadingZeroes()
     {
@@ -255,13 +259,13 @@ public void testVersionEqualWithLeadingZeroes()
             "01",
             "1"
         };
-        
+
         checkVersionsArrayEqual( arr );
     }
 
     /**
      * Test all "0" versions are equal when starting with many leading zeroes regardless of string length
-     * (related to MNG-6572 optimization) 
+     * (related to MNG-6572 optimization)
      */
     public void testVersionZeroEqualWithLeadingZeroes()
     {
@@ -287,7 +291,7 @@ public void testVersionZeroEqualWithLeadingZeroes()
             "00",
             "0"
         };
-        
+
         checkVersionsArrayEqual( arr );
     }