diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/cocotb/0002-Patch-remove-test_unicode_handle_assignment_deprecated-test.patch b/pkgs/development/python-modules/cocotb/0002-Patch-remove-test_unicode_handle_assignment_deprecated-test.patch
new file mode 100644
index 000000000000..f1a6c7f975fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/cocotb/0002-Patch-remove-test_unicode_handle_assignment_deprecated-test.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,25 @@
+diff --git a/tests/test_cases/test_cocotb/test_deprecated.py b/tests/test_cases/test_cocotb/test_deprecated.py
+index 523b93ba..b4f1701e 100644
+--- a/tests/test_cases/test_cocotb/test_deprecated.py
++++ b/tests/test_cases/test_cocotb/test_deprecated.py
+@@ -26,20 +26,6 @@ async def test_returnvalue_deprecated(dut):
+     assert val == 42
+ 
+ 
+-# strings are not supported on Icarus (gh-2585) or GHDL (gh-2584)
+-@cocotb.test(
+-    expect_error=AttributeError
+-    if cocotb.SIM_NAME.lower().startswith("icarus")
+-    else TypeError
+-    if cocotb.SIM_NAME.lower().startswith("ghdl")
+-    else ()
+-)
+-async def test_unicode_handle_assignment_deprecated(dut):
+-    with pytest.warns(DeprecationWarning, match=".*bytes.*"):
+-        dut.stream_in_string.value = "Bad idea"
+-        await cocotb.triggers.ReadWrite()
+-
+-
+ @cocotb.test()
+ async def test_convert_handle_to_string_deprecated(dut):
+     dut.stream_in_data.value = 0
diff --git a/pkgs/development/python-modules/cocotb/default.nix b/pkgs/development/python-modules/cocotb/default.nix
index 0e758490b803..8d996a4ebb04 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/python-modules/cocotb/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/python-modules/cocotb/default.nix
@@ -52,6 +52,10 @@ buildPythonPackage rec {
   patches = [
     # Fix "can't link with bundle (MH_BUNDLE) only dylibs (MH_DYLIB) file" error
     ./0001-Patch-LDCXXSHARED-for-macOS-along-with-LDSHARED.patch
+
+    # For the 1.8.1 release only: remove the test_unicode_handle_assignment_deprecated test
+    # It's more thoroughly removed upstream master with 425e1edb8e7133f4a891f2f87552aa2748cd8d2c
+    ./0002-Patch-remove-test_unicode_handle_assignment_deprecated-test.patch
   ];
 
   nativeCheckInputs = [ cocotb-bus pytestCheckHook swig verilog ghdl ];