diff --git a/ucs-school-4.0/ucs-school-umc-distribution/umc/python/distribution/__init__.py b/ucs-school-4.0/ucs-school-umc-distribution/umc/python/distribution/__init__.py
index 8330c28..30602e5 100644
--- a/ucs-school-4.0/ucs-school-umc-distribution/umc/python/distribution/__init__.py
+++ b/ucs-school-4.0/ucs-school-umc-distribution/umc/python/distribution/__init__.py
@@ -83,10 +83,26 @@ def upload(self, request):
 			self._tmpDir = tempfile.mkdtemp(prefix='ucsschool-distribution-upload-')
 			MODULE.info('Created temporary directory: %s' % self._tmpDir)
 
-		# we got an uploaded file with the following properties:
-		#   name, filename, tmpfile
-		destPath = os.path.join(self._tmpDir, file['filename'])
-		MODULE.info('Received file "%s", saving it to "%s"' % (file['tmpfile'], destPath))
+		### the following code block is a heuristic to support both: fixed and unfixed Bug #37716
+		filename = file['filename']
+		try:
+			# The UMC-Webserver decodes filename in latin-1, need to revert
+			filename = filename.encode('ISO8859-1')
+		except UnicodeEncodeError:
+			# we got non-latin characters, Bug #37716 is fixed and string contains e.g. '→'
+			filename = file['filename'].encode('UTF-8')
+		else:
+			# the string contains at least no non-latin1 characters
+			try:
+				# try if the bytes could be UTF-8
+				# can't fail if Bug #37716 is fixed
+				filename.decode('UTF-8')
+			except UnicodeDecodeError:
+				filename = file['filename'].encode('UTF-8')  # Bug #37716 was fixed
+		MODULE.info('Detected filename %r as %r' % (file['filename'], filename))
+		### the code block can be removed and replaced by filename = file['filename'].encode('UTF-8') after Bug #37716
+		destPath = os.path.join(self._tmpDir, filename)
+		MODULE.info('Received file %r, saving it to %r' % (file['tmpfile'], destPath))
 		shutil.move(file['tmpfile'], destPath)
 
 		# done
@@ -117,6 +133,7 @@ def checkfiles(self, request):
 
 		result = []
 		for ifile in request.options.get('filenames'):
+			ifile = ifile.encode('UTF-8')
 			# check whether file has already been upload in this session
 			iresult = dict(sessionDuplicate = False, projectDuplicate = False, distributed = False)
 			iresult['filename'] = ifile
@@ -191,6 +208,9 @@ def _save( self, request, doUpdate = True, ldap_user_read = None, ldap_position
 				for k in ('atJobNumCollect', 'atJobNumDistribute'):
 					iprops.pop(k, None)
 
+				# transform filenames into bytestrings
+				iprops['files'] = [f.encode('UTF-8') for f in iprops.get('files', [])]
+
 				# load the project or create a new one
 				project = None
 				orgProject = None
diff --git a/ucs-school-4.0/ucs-school-umc-distribution/umc/python/distribution/util.py b/ucs-school-4.0/ucs-school-umc-distribution/umc/python/distribution/util.py
index 7a73faa..6fc27a2 100644
--- a/ucs-school-4.0/ucs-school-umc-distribution/umc/python/distribution/util.py
+++ b/ucs-school-4.0/ucs-school-umc-distribution/umc/python/distribution/util.py
@@ -403,9 +403,7 @@ def isNameInUse(self):
 
 		# check whether a project directory with the given name exists in the
 		# recipients' home directories
-		l = [ iuser for iuser in self.getRecipients() if os.path.exists( self.user_projectdir( iuser ) ) ]
-
-		return len( l ) > 0
+		return any(iuser for iuser in self.getRecipients() if os.path.exists(self.user_projectdir(iuser)))
 
 	def save(self):
 		'''Save project data to disk and create job. In case of any errors, an IOError is raised.'''