diff --git a/pillarsdk/utils.py b/pillarsdk/utils.py
index 396bd97..d588ba0 100644
--- a/pillarsdk/utils.py
+++ b/pillarsdk/utils.py
@@ -145,3 +145,17 @@ def download_to_file(url, filename, chunk_size=10 * 1024):
             open(filename, 'wb') as outfile:
         for block in req.iter_content(chunk_size=chunk_size):
             outfile.write(block)
+
+
+def sanitize_filename(file_name):
+    """Sanitize the filename.
+
+    Returns a new filename with only filename-safe characters.
+    """
+
+    # Removes quotes and other unsafe characters.
+    # This is easier than keeping good characters and trying to be unicode-friendly.
+    badchars = set('''!#$%&*()[]{}'"/\\<>''')
+    safe_name = ''.join(c for c in file_name
+                        if ord(c) > 31 and c not in badchars)
+    return safe_name.strip(' .')
diff --git a/tests/test_utils.py b/tests/test_utils.py
index 766ff21..a09cabd 100644
--- a/tests/test_utils.py
+++ b/tests/test_utils.py
@@ -69,3 +69,11 @@ class PillarUtilsTests(unittest.TestCase):
 
         as_json = json.dumps(resource, cls=utils.PillarJSONEncoder, sort_keys=True)
         self.assertEqual('{"datetime": "2016-03-22 12:35:16"}', as_json)
+
+    def test_sanitize_filename(self):
+
+        self.assertEqual('abc.def', utils.sanitize_filename('abc.def'))
+        self.assertEqual('abc.def', utils.sanitize_filename('. . abc.def . . '))
+        self.assertEqual('abc......def', utils.sanitize_filename('././abc../..///..def'))
+        self.assertEqual('Pad Thai is ผัดไทย', utils.sanitize_filename('Pad Thai is ผัดไทย'))
+        self.assertEqual(u'Pad Thai is ผัดไทย', utils.sanitize_filename(u'Pad Thai is ผัดไทย'))