diff --git a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/package.use b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/package.use
index 8574c56c03..e02b5e85a6 100644
--- a/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/package.use
+++ b/sdk_container/src/third_party/coreos-overlay/profiles/coreos/base/package.use
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@
 app-arch/tar		minimal
 app-crypt/mit-krb5	-keyutils
 dev-libs/dbus-glib	tools
-dev-libs/protobuf 	-python
 dev-libs/libxml2	-python
 dev-util/perf		tui -doc
 dev-vcs/git		webdav curl bash-completion