Labels for terms containing < or > are missing

If a taxonomy term contains a greater than sign (>) or a less than sign (<) then the label of the term is empty. The corresponding checkbox is there and the term can be selected. The label tag in the resulting HTML is there as well but it is empty. The less than and greater than sign are important for taxonomy terms since they are often used for marking the so-called "collection terms" i.e. terms with no useful associated concept which are only used for organisation, e.g.:
fruit
-<fruit by colour>
--red
---apple
--green
---pear
-<fruit by size>
--small
---apple
--big
---water melon