diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/consumer/TopicCount.scala b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/consumer/TopicCount.scala
index e332633..7a8a125 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/consumer/TopicCount.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/consumer/TopicCount.scala
@@ -19,7 +19,7 @@ package kafka.consumer
 
 import scala.collection._
 import org.I0Itec.zkclient.ZkClient
-import kafka.utils.{Json, ZKGroupDirs, ZkUtils, Logging}
+import kafka.utils.{Json, ZKGroupDirs, ZkUtils, Logging, Utils}
 import kafka.common.KafkaException
 
 private[kafka] trait TopicCount {
@@ -125,7 +125,7 @@ private[kafka] class WildcardTopicCount(zkClient: ZkClient,
     makeConsumerThreadIdsPerTopic(consumerIdString, Map(wildcardTopics.map((_, numStreams)): _*))
   }
 
-  def getTopicCountMap = Map(topicFilter.regex -> numStreams)
+  def getTopicCountMap = Map(Utils.quoteJsonLiteral(topicFilter.regex) -> numStreams)
 
   def pattern: String = {
     topicFilter match {
diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/utils/Utils.scala b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/utils/Utils.scala
index a89b046..5f50f55 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/kafka/utils/Utils.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/kafka/utils/Utils.scala
@@ -445,6 +445,28 @@ object Utils extends Logging {
    */
   def nullOrEmpty(s: String): Boolean = s == null || s.equals("")
 
+  def quoteJsonLiteral (s : String) : String =
+    s.map {
+      case '"'  => "\\\""
+      case '\\' => "\\\\"
+      case '/'  => "\\/"
+      case '\b' => "\\b"
+      case '\f' => "\\f"
+      case '\n' => "\\n"
+      case '\r' => "\\r"
+      case '\t' => "\\t"
+      /* We'll unicode escape any control characters. These include:
+       * 0x0 -> 0x1f  : ASCII Control (C0 Control Codes)
+       * 0x7f         : ASCII DELETE
+       * 0x80 -> 0x9f : C1 Control Codes
+       *
+       * Per RFC4627, section 2.5, we're not technically required to
+       * encode the C1 codes, but we do to be safe.
+       */
+      case c if ((c >= '\u0000' && c <= '\u001f') || (c >= '\u007f' && c <= '\u009f')) => "\\u%04x".format(c: Int)
+      case c => c
+    }.mkString
+
   /**
    * Create a circular (looping) iterator over a collection.
    * @param coll An iterable over the underlying collection.