Tab encoding not working in W2008 server

Tab encoding not working in W2008 server

I have a GET request like this:
https://server/Api/multitester%20digital%20sinometer%20m%203900%09%20-%09050301-011660-001112/productdetail
It works fine locally on my Window 8 machine but on the server I always
get "Bad Request - Invalid URL". The request on the server is not even
reaching the code in the controller.
If I remove %09 then it works in both places. My internal logic deals
properly with special escape characters.
Any light on what would be going on?
FYI: I can't quite control what the product name can be in the case of tabs.
Thanks!