diff --git a/pmd-java/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cpd/JavaTokenizer.java b/pmd-java/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cpd/JavaTokenizer.java
index 2be4b4ca82..0b62ca6ade 100644
--- a/pmd-java/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cpd/JavaTokenizer.java
+++ b/pmd-java/src/main/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cpd/JavaTokenizer.java
@@ -127,7 +127,7 @@ public class JavaTokenizer implements Tokenizer {
             }
         }
 
-        public void skipPackageAndImport(Token currentToken) {
+        private void skipPackageAndImport(Token currentToken) {
             if (currentToken.kind == JavaParserConstants.PACKAGE || currentToken.kind == JavaParserConstants.IMPORT) {
                 discardingKeywords = true;
             } else if (discardingKeywords && currentToken.kind == JavaParserConstants.SEMICOLON) {
@@ -135,7 +135,7 @@ public class JavaTokenizer implements Tokenizer {
             }
         }
 
-        public void skipSemicolon(Token currentToken) {
+        private void skipSemicolon(Token currentToken) {
             if (currentToken.kind == JavaParserConstants.SEMICOLON) {
                 discardingSemicolon = true;
             } else if (discardingSemicolon && currentToken.kind != JavaParserConstants.SEMICOLON) {
@@ -143,7 +143,21 @@ public class JavaTokenizer implements Tokenizer {
             }
         }
 
-        public void skipCPDSuppression(Token currentToken) {
+        private void skipCPDSuppression(Token currentToken) {
+            // Check if a comment is altering the suppression state
+            Token st = currentToken.specialToken;
+            while (st != null) {
+                if (st.image.contains("CPD-OFF")) {
+                    discardingSuppressing = true;
+                    break;
+                }
+                if (st.image.contains("CPD-ON")) {
+                    discardingSuppressing = false;
+                    break;
+                }
+                st = st.specialToken;
+            }
+
             // if processing an annotation, look for a CPD-START or CPD-END
             if (isAnnotation) {
                 if (!discardingSuppressing && currentToken.kind == JavaParserConstants.STRING_LITERAL
@@ -156,7 +170,7 @@ public class JavaTokenizer implements Tokenizer {
             }
         }
 
-        public void skipAnnotations() {
+        private void skipAnnotations() {
             if (!discardingAnnotations && isAnnotation) {
                 discardingAnnotations = true;
             } else if (discardingAnnotations && !isAnnotation) {
@@ -170,7 +184,7 @@ public class JavaTokenizer implements Tokenizer {
             return result;
         }
 
-        public void detectAnnotations(Token currentToken) {
+        private void detectAnnotations(Token currentToken) {
             if (isAnnotation && nextTokenEndsAnnotation) {
                 isAnnotation = false;
                 nextTokenEndsAnnotation = false;
diff --git a/pmd-java/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cpd/JavaTokensTokenizerTest.java b/pmd-java/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cpd/JavaTokensTokenizerTest.java
index fa0fa9908e..3291c53ad6 100644
--- a/pmd-java/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cpd/JavaTokensTokenizerTest.java
+++ b/pmd-java/src/test/java/net/sourceforge/pmd/cpd/JavaTokensTokenizerTest.java
@@ -87,11 +87,6 @@ public class JavaTokensTokenizerTest {
         assertEquals(6, tokens.size());
     }
 
-    /**
-     * Comments are discarded already by the Java parser. It would be nice,
-     * however, to use simple comments like //CPD-START or //CPD-END to enable
-     * discard-mode of CPD
-     */
     @Test
     public void testIgnoreComments() {
         JavaTokenizer t = new JavaTokenizer();
@@ -117,6 +112,55 @@ public class JavaTokensTokenizerTest {
         assertEquals(6, tokens.size());
     }
 
+    @Test
+    public void testIgnoreBetweenSpecialComments() throws IOException {
+        JavaTokenizer t = new JavaTokenizer();
+        t.setIgnoreAnnotations(false);
+        SourceCode sourceCode = new SourceCode(new SourceCode.StringCodeLoader("package foo.bar.baz;" + PMD.EOL
+                + "// CPD-OFF" + PMD.EOL + "// CPD-OFF" + PMD.EOL
+                + "@ MyAnnotation (\"ugh\")" + PMD.EOL + "@NamedQueries({" + PMD.EOL + "@NamedQuery(" + PMD.EOL + ")})"
+                + PMD.EOL + "public class Foo {" + "// CPD-ON" + PMD.EOL
+                + "}"
+        ));
+        Tokens tokens = new Tokens();
+        t.tokenize(sourceCode, tokens);
+        TokenEntry.getEOF();
+        assertEquals(2, tokens.size()); // 2 tokens: "}" + EOF
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testIgnoreBetweenSpecialCommentsMultiple() throws IOException {
+        JavaTokenizer t = new JavaTokenizer();
+        t.setIgnoreAnnotations(false);
+        SourceCode sourceCode = new SourceCode(new SourceCode.StringCodeLoader("package foo.bar.baz;" + PMD.EOL
+                + "// CPD-OFF" + PMD.EOL + "// another irrelevant comment" + PMD.EOL
+                + "@ MyAnnotation (\"ugh\")" + PMD.EOL + "@NamedQueries({" + PMD.EOL + "@NamedQuery(" + PMD.EOL + ")})"
+                + PMD.EOL + "public class Foo {" + "// CPD-ON" + PMD.EOL
+                + "}"
+        ));
+        Tokens tokens = new Tokens();
+        t.tokenize(sourceCode, tokens);
+        TokenEntry.getEOF();
+        assertEquals(2, tokens.size()); // 2 tokens: "}" + EOF
+    }
+
+    @Test
+    public void testIgnoreBetweenSpecialCommentsMultiline() throws IOException {
+        JavaTokenizer t = new JavaTokenizer();
+        t.setIgnoreAnnotations(false);
+        SourceCode sourceCode = new SourceCode(new SourceCode.StringCodeLoader("package foo.bar.baz;" + PMD.EOL
+                + "/* " + PMD.EOL + " * CPD-OFF" + PMD.EOL + "*/" + PMD.EOL
+                + "@ MyAnnotation (\"ugh\")" + PMD.EOL + "@NamedQueries({" + PMD.EOL + "@NamedQuery(" + PMD.EOL + ")})"
+                + PMD.EOL + "public class Foo {" + PMD.EOL
+                + "/* " + PMD.EOL + " * CPD-ON" + PMD.EOL + "*/" + PMD.EOL
+                + "}"
+        ));
+        Tokens tokens = new Tokens();
+        t.tokenize(sourceCode, tokens);
+        TokenEntry.getEOF();
+        assertEquals(2, tokens.size()); // 2 tokens: "}" + EOF
+    }
+
     @Test
     public void testIgnoreBetweenSpecialAnnotation() throws IOException {
         JavaTokenizer t = new JavaTokenizer();
diff --git a/src/site/markdown/usage/cpd-usage.md b/src/site/markdown/usage/cpd-usage.md
index d22865c681..23fb35425b 100644
--- a/src/site/markdown/usage/cpd-usage.md
+++ b/src/site/markdown/usage/cpd-usage.md
@@ -443,9 +443,33 @@ Here's a [screenshot](../images/screenshot_cpd.png) of CPD after running on the
 
 ## Suppression
 
-By adding the annotations **@SuppressWarnings("CPD-START")** and **@SuppressWarnings("CPD-END")**
-all code within will be ignored by CPD - thus you can avoid false positivs.
-This provides the ability to ignore sections of source code, such as switch/case statements or parameterized factories.
+Arbitrary blocks of code can be ignored through comments on **Java** by including the keywords `CPD-OFF` and `CPD-ON`.
+
+    public Object someParameterizedFactoryMethod(int x) throws Exception {
+        // some unignored code
+
+        // tell cpd to start ignoring code - CPD-OFF
+
+        // mission critical code, manually loop unroll
+        goDoSomethingAwesome(x + x / 2);
+        goDoSomethingAwesome(x + x / 2);
+        goDoSomethingAwesome(x + x / 2);
+        goDoSomethingAwesome(x + x / 2);
+        goDoSomethingAwesome(x + x / 2);
+        goDoSomethingAwesome(x + x / 2);
+
+        // resume CPD analysis - CPD-ON
+
+        // further code will *not* be ignored
+    }
+
+
+Additionally, **Java** allows to toggle suppression by adding the annotations
+**`@SuppressWarnings("CPD-START")`** and **`@SuppressWarnings("CPD-END")`**
+all code within will be ignored by CPD.
+
+This approach however, is limited to the locations were `@SuppressWarnings` is accepted.
+It's legacy and the new comment's based approch should be favored.
 
     //enable suppression
     @SuppressWarnings("CPD-START")
@@ -457,3 +481,7 @@ This provides the ability to ignore sections of source code, such as switch/case
     public void nextMethod() {
     }
 
+
+Other languages currently have no support to suppress CPD reports. In the future,
+the comment based approach will be extended to those of them that can support it.
+