diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/code-generator/cmd/go-to-protobuf/protobuf/cmd.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/code-generator/cmd/go-to-protobuf/protobuf/cmd.go
index c1236a9cda5..1a0f767f5c7 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/code-generator/cmd/go-to-protobuf/protobuf/cmd.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/code-generator/cmd/go-to-protobuf/protobuf/cmd.go
@@ -50,7 +50,6 @@ type Generator struct {
 	KeepGogoproto        bool
 	SkipGeneratedRewrite bool
 	DropEmbeddedFields   string
-	TrimPathPrefix       string
 }
 
 func New() *Generator {
@@ -94,7 +93,6 @@ func (g *Generator) BindFlags(flag *flag.FlagSet) {
 	flag.BoolVar(&g.KeepGogoproto, "keep-gogoproto", g.KeepGogoproto, "If true, the generated IDL will contain gogoprotobuf extensions which are normally removed")
 	flag.BoolVar(&g.SkipGeneratedRewrite, "skip-generated-rewrite", g.SkipGeneratedRewrite, "If true, skip fixing up the generated.pb.go file (debugging only).")
 	flag.StringVar(&g.DropEmbeddedFields, "drop-embedded-fields", g.DropEmbeddedFields, "Comma-delimited list of embedded Go types to omit from generated protobufs")
-	flag.StringVar(&g.TrimPathPrefix, "trim-path-prefix", g.TrimPathPrefix, "If set, trim the specified prefix from --output-package when generating files.")
 }
 
 // This roughly models gengo/v2/args.GeneratorArgs.Execute.
@@ -171,7 +169,6 @@ func Run(g *Generator) {
 
 	c.Verify = g.Common.VerifyOnly
 	c.FileTypes["protoidl"] = NewProtoFile()
-	c.TrimPathPrefix = g.TrimPathPrefix
 
 	// Roughly models gengo/v2/args.GeneratorArgs.Execute calling the
 	// tool-provided Packages() callback.
@@ -310,22 +307,6 @@ func Run(g *Generator) {
 			outputPath = filepath.Join(g.VendorOutputBase, p.OutputPath())
 		}
 
-		// When working outside of GOPATH, we typically won't want to generate the
-		// full path for a package. For example, if our current project's root/base
-		// package is github.com/foo/bar, outDir=., p.Path()=github.com/foo/bar/generated,
-		// then we really want to be writing files to ./generated, not ./github.com/foo/bar/generated.
-		// The following will trim a path prefix (github.com/foo/bar) from p.Path() to arrive at
-		// a relative path that works with projects not in GOPATH.
-		if g.TrimPathPrefix != "" {
-			separator := string(filepath.Separator)
-			if !strings.HasSuffix(g.TrimPathPrefix, separator) {
-				g.TrimPathPrefix += separator
-			}
-
-			path = strings.TrimPrefix(path, g.TrimPathPrefix)
-			outputPath = strings.TrimPrefix(outputPath, g.TrimPathPrefix)
-		}
-
 		// generate the gogoprotobuf protoc
 		cmd := exec.Command("protoc", append(args, path)...)
 		out, err := cmd.CombinedOutput()