diff --git a/test/test_issue446.py b/test/test_issue446.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..bc414baf6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/test_issue446.py
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+# coding=utf-8
+# test for https://github.com/RDFLib/rdflib/issues/446
+
+from rdflib import Graph, URIRef, Literal
+
+def test_sparql_unicode():
+    g = Graph()
+    trip = (
+        URIRef('http://example.org/foo'),
+        URIRef('http://example.org/bar'),
+        URIRef(u'http://example.org/jörn')
+    )
+    g.add(trip)
+    q = 'select ?s ?p ?o where { ?s ?p ?o . FILTER(lang(?o) = "") }'
+    r = list(g.query(q))
+    assert r == [], \
+        'sparql query %r should return nothing but returns %r' % (q, r)
+
+
+if __name__ == '__main__':
+    test_sparql_unicode()