diff --git a/java/client/src/org/openqa/selenium/json/BeanToJsonConverter.java b/java/client/src/org/openqa/selenium/json/BeanToJsonConverter.java
index 7da884bbe8b7c..75138611a8e11 100644
--- a/java/client/src/org/openqa/selenium/json/BeanToJsonConverter.java
+++ b/java/client/src/org/openqa/selenium/json/BeanToJsonConverter.java
@@ -34,6 +34,7 @@
 import java.io.File;
 import java.lang.reflect.Array;
 import java.lang.reflect.Method;
+import java.net.URL;
 import java.util.Collection;
 import java.util.Date;
 import java.util.Map;
@@ -173,6 +174,10 @@ private JsonElement convertObject(Object toConvert, int maxDepth) throws Excepti
       return new JsonPrimitive(((File) toConvert).getAbsolutePath());
     }
 
+    if (toConvert instanceof URL) {
+      return new JsonPrimitive(((URL) toConvert).toExternalForm());
+    }
+
     Method toJson = getMethod(toConvert, "toJson");
     if (toJson != null) {
       try {
diff --git a/java/client/src/org/openqa/selenium/json/Json.java b/java/client/src/org/openqa/selenium/json/Json.java
index 842a86b2dff2c..49b6dc93350eb 100644
--- a/java/client/src/org/openqa/selenium/json/Json.java
+++ b/java/client/src/org/openqa/selenium/json/Json.java
@@ -46,6 +46,7 @@ public class Json {
       .registerTypeAdapterFactory(MapAdapter.FACTORY)
       .setLenient()
       .serializeNulls()
+      .disableHtmlEscaping()
       .create();
 
   public static final Type LIST_OF_MAPS_TYPE = new TypeToken<List<Map<String, Object>>>() {}.getType();
diff --git a/java/client/test/org/openqa/selenium/json/BeanToJsonConverterTest.java b/java/client/test/org/openqa/selenium/json/BeanToJsonConverterTest.java
index 8a3449bbe8de8..7ca667001be80 100644
--- a/java/client/test/org/openqa/selenium/json/BeanToJsonConverterTest.java
+++ b/java/client/test/org/openqa/selenium/json/BeanToJsonConverterTest.java
@@ -60,6 +60,8 @@
 
 import java.awt.*;
 import java.io.StringReader;
+import java.net.MalformedURLException;
+import java.net.URL;
 import java.util.Date;
 import java.util.HashMap;
 import java.util.HashSet;
@@ -521,6 +523,17 @@ public void testShouldBeAbleToConvertACommand() {
     assertEquals(pars.get("param2").getAsString(), parameters.get("param2"));
   }
 
+  @Test
+  public void shouldConvertAUrlToAString() throws MalformedURLException {
+    URL url = new URL("http://example.com/cheese?type=edam");
+    ImmutableMap<String, URL> toConvert = ImmutableMap.of("url", url);
+
+    String seen = new Json().toJson(toConvert);
+    JsonObject converted = new JsonParser().parse(seen).getAsJsonObject();
+
+    assertEquals(url.toExternalForm(), converted.get("url").getAsString());
+  }
+
   @SuppressWarnings("unused")
   private static class SimpleBean {