diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index 1e610e00716..db1e210e98b 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -188,7 +188,7 @@ lint: go-mod-tidy golangci-lint misspell govulncheck
 
 .PHONY: license-check
 license-check:
-	@licRes=$$(for f in $$(find . -type f \( -iname '*.go' -o -iname '*.sh' \) ! -path '**/third_party/*' ! -path './.git/*' ) ; do \
+	@licRes=$$(for f in $$(find . -type f \( -iname '*.go' -o -iname '*.sh' \) ! -path './vendor/*' ! -path './exporters/otlp/internal/opentelemetry-proto/*') ; do \
 	           awk '/Copyright The OpenTelemetry Authors|generated|GENERATED/ && NR<=4 { found=1; next } END { if (!found) print FILENAME }' $$f; \
 	   done); \
 	   if [ -n "$${licRes}" ]; then \