diff --git a/rmw_zenoh_cpp/src/detail/liveliness_utils.cpp b/rmw_zenoh_cpp/src/detail/liveliness_utils.cpp
index 997f76b3..306c60a0 100644
--- a/rmw_zenoh_cpp/src/detail/liveliness_utils.cpp
+++ b/rmw_zenoh_cpp/src/detail/liveliness_utils.cpp
@@ -446,6 +446,24 @@ std::string mangle_name(const std::string & input)
   return output;
 }
 
+///=============================================================================
+char * mangle_name(const char * input)
+{
+  size_t input_length = strlen(input);
+  char * output = new char[input_length + 1];
+
+  for (size_t i = 0; i < input_length; ++i) {
+    if (input[i] == '/') {
+      output[i] = SLASH_REPLACEMENT;
+    } else {
+      output[i] = input[i];
+    }
+  }
+  output[input_length] = '\0';
+
+  return output;
+}
+
 ///=============================================================================
 std::string demangle_name(const std::string & input)
 {
diff --git a/rmw_zenoh_cpp/src/detail/liveliness_utils.hpp b/rmw_zenoh_cpp/src/detail/liveliness_utils.hpp
index 390ecc68..40d9c80a 100644
--- a/rmw_zenoh_cpp/src/detail/liveliness_utils.hpp
+++ b/rmw_zenoh_cpp/src/detail/liveliness_utils.hpp
@@ -122,6 +122,9 @@ class Entity
 /// Replace "/" instances with "%".
 std::string mangle_name(const std::string & input);
 
+/// Replace "/" instances with "%".
+char * mangle_name(const char * input);
+
 /// Replace "%" instances with "/".
 std::string demangle_name(const std::string & input);
 
diff --git a/rmw_zenoh_cpp/src/rmw_zenoh.cpp b/rmw_zenoh_cpp/src/rmw_zenoh.cpp
index ae62e7be..de6edd11 100644
--- a/rmw_zenoh_cpp/src/rmw_zenoh.cpp
+++ b/rmw_zenoh_cpp/src/rmw_zenoh.cpp
@@ -79,7 +79,7 @@ namespace
 // the old string into it. If this becomes a performance problem, we could consider
 // modifying the topic_name in place. But this means we need to be much more
 // careful about who owns the string.
-z_owned_keyexpr_t ros_topic_name_to_zenoh_key(const char * const topic_name, size_t domain_id)
+z_owned_keyexpr_t ros_topic_name_to_zenoh_key(const char * topic_name, size_t domain_id)
 {
   std::string d = std::to_string(domain_id);
 
@@ -87,12 +87,14 @@ z_owned_keyexpr_t ros_topic_name_to_zenoh_key(const char * const topic_name, siz
   size_t topic_name_len = strlen(topic_name);
   size_t end_offset = topic_name_len;
 
+  topic_name = liveliness::mangle_name(topic_name);
+
   if (topic_name_len > 0) {
-    if (topic_name[0] == '/') {
+    if (topic_name[0] == '%') {
       // Strip the leading '/'
       start_offset = 1;
     }
-    if (topic_name[end_offset - 1] == '/') {
+    if (topic_name[end_offset - 1] == '%') {
       // Strip the trailing '/'
       end_offset -= 1;
     }