diff --git a/src/common.ml b/src/common.ml
index d0e9dbd0..9841c704 100644
--- a/src/common.ml
+++ b/src/common.ml
@@ -148,7 +148,7 @@ let loc_of_attribute { attr_name; attr_payload; attr_loc = _ } =
      from older asts. *)
   (* "ocaml.doc" attributes are generated with [Location.none], which is not helpful for
      error messages. *)
-  if Poly.( = ) attr_name.loc Location.none then
+  if Location.is_none attr_name.loc then
     loc_of_name_and_payload attr_name attr_payload
   else
     {
@@ -157,7 +157,7 @@ let loc_of_attribute { attr_name; attr_payload; attr_loc = _ } =
     }
 
 let loc_of_extension (name, payload) =
-  if Poly.( = ) name.loc Location.none then loc_of_name_and_payload name payload
+  if Location.is_none name.loc then loc_of_name_and_payload name payload
   else
     { name.loc with loc_end = (loc_of_name_and_payload name payload).loc_end }
 
diff --git a/src/location.ml b/src/location.ml
index 54daa639..884cc06e 100644
--- a/src/location.ml
+++ b/src/location.ml
@@ -18,6 +18,14 @@ let set_filename loc fn =
 
 let none = in_file "_none_"
 
+let none_4_08_0_plus =
+  let loc =
+    { pos_fname = "_none_"; pos_lnum = 0; pos_bol = 0; pos_cnum = -1 }
+  in
+  { loc_start = loc; loc_end = loc; loc_ghost = true }
+
+let is_none v = Poly.( = ) v none || Poly.( = ) v none_4_08_0_plus
+
 let init lexbuf fname =
   let open Lexing in
   lexbuf.lex_curr_p <-
diff --git a/src/location.mli b/src/location.mli
index a6f4f6b5..a45e68f2 100644
--- a/src/location.mli
+++ b/src/location.mli
@@ -23,6 +23,12 @@ val set_filename : t -> string -> t
 val none : t
 (** An arbitrary value of type [t]; describes an empty ghost range. *)
 
+val is_none : t -> bool
+(** Checks whether a given location is equal to [none].
+
+    Note that this function returns [true] for none locations from all supported
+    compiler versions. *)
+
 val init : Lexing.lexbuf -> string -> unit
 (** Set the file name and line number of the [lexbuf] to be the start of the
     named file. *)