beanUtils.setExcludeNulls(true);
    beanUtils.copyProperties(dest, source);

public static String[] getNullPropertyNames (Object source) {
    final BeanWrapper src = new BeanWrapperImpl(source);
    java.beans.PropertyDescriptor[] pds = src.getPropertyDescriptors();

    Set<String> emptyNames = new HashSet<String>();
    for(java.beans.PropertyDescriptor pd : pds) {
        Object srcValue = src.getPropertyValue(pd.getName());
        if (srcValue == null) emptyNames.add(pd.getName());
    }
    String[] result = new String[emptyNames.size()];
    return emptyNames.toArray(result);
}

// then use Spring BeanUtils to copy and ignore null
public static myCopyProperties(Object, src, Object target) {
    BeanUtils.copyProperties(src, target, getNullPropertyNames(src))
}