diff --git a/src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/spdy/SpdyCodecUtil.java b/src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/spdy/SpdyCodecUtil.java
index fd94358c2f..54f191b86f 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/spdy/SpdyCodecUtil.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/spdy/SpdyCodecUtil.java
@@ -349,10 +349,6 @@ final class SpdyCodecUtil {
         if (value == null) {
             throw new NullPointerException("value");
         }
-        if (value.length() == 0) {
-            throw new IllegalArgumentException(
-                    "value cannot be length zero");
-        }
         for (int i = 0; i < value.length(); i ++) {
             char c = value.charAt(i);
             if (c == 0) {
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/spdy/SpdyFrameDecoder.java b/src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/spdy/SpdyFrameDecoder.java
index 92188d01b7..4e56fb012b 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/spdy/SpdyFrameDecoder.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/spdy/SpdyFrameDecoder.java
@@ -594,7 +594,7 @@ public class SpdyFrameDecoder extends FrameDecoder {
             }
         }
 
-        while (numHeaders > 0) {
+        while (numHeaders -- > 0) {
             int headerSize = this.headerSize;
             decompressed.markReaderIndex();
 
@@ -642,10 +642,23 @@ public class SpdyFrameDecoder extends FrameDecoder {
             int valueLength = readLengthField();
 
             // Recipients of illegal value fields must issue a stream error
-            if (valueLength <= 0) {
+            if (valueLength < 0) {
                 spdyHeaderBlock.setInvalid();
                 return;
             }
+
+            // SPDY/3 allows zero-length (empty) header values
+            if (valueLength == 0) {
+                if (version < 3) {
+                    spdyHeaderBlock.setInvalid();
+                    return;
+                } else {
+                    spdyHeaderBlock.addHeader(name, "");
+                    this.headerSize = headerSize;
+                    continue;
+                }
+            }
+
             headerSize += valueLength;
             if (headerSize > maxHeaderSize) {
                 throw new TooLongFrameException(
@@ -686,7 +699,6 @@ public class SpdyFrameDecoder extends FrameDecoder {
                 index ++;
                 offset = index;
             }
-            numHeaders --;
             this.headerSize = headerSize;
         }
         decompressed = null;
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/spdy/SpdyFrameEncoder.java b/src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/spdy/SpdyFrameEncoder.java
index d6d6820a30..dea22621bb 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/spdy/SpdyFrameEncoder.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/jboss/netty/handler/codec/spdy/SpdyFrameEncoder.java
@@ -383,17 +383,28 @@ public class SpdyFrameEncoder implements ChannelDownstreamHandler {
             writeLengthField(version, headerBlock, valueLength);
             for (String value: headerFrame.getHeaders(name)) {
                 byte[] valueBytes = value.getBytes("UTF-8");
-                headerBlock.writeBytes(valueBytes);
-                headerBlock.writeByte(0);
-                valueLength += valueBytes.length + 1;
+                if (valueBytes.length > 0) {
+                    headerBlock.writeBytes(valueBytes);
+                    headerBlock.writeByte(0);
+                    valueLength += valueBytes.length + 1;
+                }
+            }
+            if (valueLength == 0) {
+                if (version < 3) {
+                    throw new IllegalArgumentException(
+                            "header value cannot be empty: " + name);
+                }
+            } else {
+                valueLength --;
             }
-            valueLength --;
             if (valueLength > SPDY_MAX_NV_LENGTH) {
                 throw new IllegalArgumentException(
                         "header exceeds allowable length: " + name);
             }
-            setLengthField(version, headerBlock, savedIndex, valueLength);
-            headerBlock.writerIndex(headerBlock.writerIndex() - 1);
+            if (valueLength > 0) {
+                setLengthField(version, headerBlock, savedIndex, valueLength);
+                headerBlock.writerIndex(headerBlock.writerIndex() - 1);
+            }
         }
         return headerBlock;
     }