diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/code-generator/cmd/register-gen/generators/packages.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/code-generator/cmd/register-gen/generators/packages.go
index 037adca2fc8..242eb3aa10a 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/code-generator/cmd/register-gen/generators/packages.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/code-generator/cmd/register-gen/generators/packages.go
@@ -82,7 +82,7 @@ func Packages(context *generator.Context, arguments *args.GeneratorArgs) generat
 
 			// if there is a comment of the form "// +groupName=somegroup" or "// +groupName=somegroup.foo.bar.io",
 			// extract the fully qualified API group name from it and overwrite the group inferred from the package path
-			if override := types.ExtractCommentTags("+", pkg.DocComments)["groupName"]; override != nil {
+			if override := types.ExtractCommentTags("+", pkg.Comments)["groupName"]; override != nil {
 				groupName := override[0]
 				klog.V(5).Infof("overriding the group name with = %s", groupName)
 				gv.Group = clientgentypes.Group(groupName)