diff --git a/pyzmail/parse.py b/pyzmail/parse.py
index da5c10469..9f86c3717 100644
--- a/pyzmail/parse.py
+++ b/pyzmail/parse.py
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ quoted=r'"(?:\\[^\r\n]|[^\\"])*"'
 local="(?:"  +  dot_atom  +  "|"  +  quoted  +  ")"
 domain_lit=r"\[(?:\\\S|[\x21-\x5a\x5e-\x7e])*\]"
 domain="(?:"  +  dot_atom  +  "|"  +  domain_lit  +  ")"
-addr_spec=local  +  "\@"  +  domain
+addr_spec=local  +  "@"  +  domain
 # and the result
 email_address_re=re.compile('^'+addr_spec+'$')
 
diff --git a/pyzmail/utils.py b/pyzmail/utils.py
index 3f4ef6d5f..436e2a4c3 100644
--- a/pyzmail/utils.py
+++ b/pyzmail/utils.py
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ import sys
 
 invalid_chars_in_filename=b'\x00\x01\x02\x03\x04\x05\x06\x07\x08\x09\x0a\x0b\x0c\x0d\x0e\x0f' \
                           b'\x10\x11\x12\x13\x14\x15\x16\x17\x18\x19\x1a\x1b\x1c\x1d\x1e\x1f' \
-                          b'<>:"/\\|?*\%\''
+                          b'<>:"/\\|?*%\''
 
 invalid_windows_name=[b'CON', b'PRN', b'AUX', b'NUL', b'COM1', b'COM2', b'COM3', 
                       b'COM4', b'COM5', b'COM6', b'COM7', b'COM8', b'COM9',