diff --git a/google-http-client/src/main/java/com/google/api/client/http/HttpRequest.java b/google-http-client/src/main/java/com/google/api/client/http/HttpRequest.java
index a2c01d425..23ec3e168 100644
--- a/google-http-client/src/main/java/com/google/api/client/http/HttpRequest.java
+++ b/google-http-client/src/main/java/com/google/api/client/http/HttpRequest.java
@@ -1224,19 +1224,17 @@ private static void addSpanAttribute(Span span, String key, String value) {
   }
   
   private static String getVersion() {
-    String version = HttpRequest.class.getPackage().getImplementationVersion();
-    // in a non-packaged environment (local), there's no implementation version to read
-    if (version == null) {
-      // fall back to reading from a properties file - note this value is expected to be cached
-      try (InputStream inputStream = HttpRequest.class.getResourceAsStream("/google-http-client.properties")) {
-        if (inputStream != null) {
-          Properties properties = new Properties();
-          properties.load(inputStream);
-          version = properties.getProperty("google-http-client.version");
-        }
-      } catch (IOException e) {
-        // ignore
+    // attempt to read the library's version from a properties file generated during the build
+    // this value should be read and cached for later use
+    String version = "unknown-version";
+    try (InputStream inputStream = HttpRequest.class.getResourceAsStream("/google-http-client.properties")) {
+      if (inputStream != null) {
+        final Properties properties = new Properties();
+        properties.load(inputStream);
+        version = properties.getProperty("google-http-client.version");
       }
+    } catch (IOException e) {
+      // ignore
     }
     return version;
   }
diff --git a/google-http-client/src/test/java/com/google/api/client/http/HttpRequestTest.java b/google-http-client/src/test/java/com/google/api/client/http/HttpRequestTest.java
index a76b63850..154f3af16 100644
--- a/google-http-client/src/test/java/com/google/api/client/http/HttpRequestTest.java
+++ b/google-http-client/src/test/java/com/google/api/client/http/HttpRequestTest.java
@@ -31,10 +31,6 @@
 import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableList;
 import com.google.common.collect.ImmutableSet;
 import com.google.common.collect.Lists;
-
-import java.util.regex.Pattern;
-import junit.framework.TestCase;
-
 import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.util.Arrays;
@@ -45,7 +41,8 @@
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
 import java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException;
 import java.util.logging.Level;
-
+import java.util.regex.Pattern;
+import junit.framework.TestCase;
 import org.junit.Assert;
 
 /**
@@ -1267,4 +1264,14 @@ public void testExecute_curlLoggerWithContentEncoding() throws Exception {
     }
     assertTrue(found);
   }
+
+  public void testVersion_matchesAcceptablePatterns() throws Exception {
+    String acceptableVersionPattern =
+        "unknown-version|(?:\\d+\\.\\d+\\.\\d+(?:-.*?)?(?:-SNAPSHOT)?)";
+    String version = HttpRequest.VERSION;
+    assertTrue(
+        String.format("the loaded version '%s' did not match the acceptable pattern", version),
+        version.matches(acceptableVersionPattern)
+    );
+  }
 }