diff --git a/RELEASE.md b/RELEASE.md
index 66594a42..3223e3cd 100644
--- a/RELEASE.md
+++ b/RELEASE.md
@@ -1,3 +1,25 @@
+# Version 1.16.1
+
+## Major Features and Improvements
+
+*   N/A
+
+## Bug Fixes and Other Changes
+
+*   Relax dependency on Protobuf to include version 5.x
+
+## Known Issues
+
+*   N/A
+
+## Breaking Changes
+
+*   N/A
+
+## Deprecations
+
+*   N/A
+
 # Version 1.16.0
 
 ## Major Features and Improvements
@@ -19,4 +41,3 @@
 ## Deprecations
 
 *   N/A
-
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 4aa077f6..8677140e 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -182,7 +182,7 @@ def select_constraint(default, nightly=None, git_master=None):
         'joblib>=1.2.0',  # Dependency for multi-processing.
         'numpy>=1.22.0',
         'pandas>=1.0,<2',
-        'protobuf>=4.25.2,<5;python_version>="3.11"',
+        'protobuf>=4.25.2,<6;python_version>="3.11"',
         'protobuf>=3.20.3,<5;python_version<"3.11"',
         'pyarrow>=10,<11',
         'pyfarmhash>=0.2.2,<0.4',
diff --git a/tensorflow_data_validation/version.py b/tensorflow_data_validation/version.py
index 91911aef..19a8c383 100644
--- a/tensorflow_data_validation/version.py
+++ b/tensorflow_data_validation/version.py
@@ -15,4 +15,4 @@
 """Contains the version string of TFDV."""
 
 # Note that setup.py uses this version.
-__version__ = '1.16.0'
+__version__ = '1.16.1'