diff --git a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/schema/group_version.go b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/schema/group_version.go
index 636103312f0..9563b88b720 100644
--- a/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/schema/group_version.go
+++ b/staging/src/k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/schema/group_version.go
@@ -176,15 +176,6 @@ func (gv GroupVersion) Empty() bool {
 // String puts "group" and "version" into a single "group/version" string. For the legacy v1
 // it returns "v1".
 func (gv GroupVersion) String() string {
-	// special case the internal apiVersion for the legacy kube types
-	if gv.Empty() {
-		return ""
-	}
-
-	// special case of "v1" for backward compatibility
-	if len(gv.Group) == 0 && gv.Version == "v1" {
-		return gv.Version
-	}
 	if len(gv.Group) > 0 {
 		return gv.Group + "/" + gv.Version
 	}