diff --git a/jdk/src/share/native/sun/font/layout/SunLayoutEngine.cpp b/jdk/src/share/native/sun/font/layout/SunLayoutEngine.cpp
index b32f2601b4d..8036a64c4be 100644
--- a/jdk/src/share/native/sun/font/layout/SunLayoutEngine.cpp
+++ b/jdk/src/share/native/sun/font/layout/SunLayoutEngine.cpp
@@ -179,6 +179,10 @@ JNIEXPORT void JNICALL Java_sun_font_SunLayoutEngine_nativeLayout
   FontInstanceAdapter fia(env, font2d, strike, mat, 72, 72, (le_int32) upem, (TTLayoutTableCache *) layoutTables);
   LEErrorCode success = LE_NO_ERROR;
   LayoutEngine *engine = LayoutEngine::layoutEngineFactory(&fia, script, lang, typo_flags & TYPO_MASK, success);
+  if (engine == NULL) {
+    env->SetIntField(gvdata, gvdCountFID, -1); // flag failure
+    return;
+  }
 
   if (min < 0) min = 0; if (max < min) max = min; /* defensive coding */
   // have to copy, yuck, since code does upcalls now.  this will be soooo slow