diff --git a/src/license_expression/__init__.py b/src/license_expression/__init__.py
index dc1ab31..21d44ef 100644
--- a/src/license_expression/__init__.py
+++ b/src/license_expression/__init__.py
@@ -785,10 +785,14 @@ def validate(self, expression, strict=True, **kwargs):
         # Check `expression` type and syntax
         try:
             parsed_expression = self.parse(expression, strict=strict)
-        except ExpressionError as e:
+        except ExpressionParseError as e:
             expression_info.errors.append(str(e))
             expression_info.invalid_symbols.append(e.token_string)
             return expression_info
+        except ExpressionError as e:
+            expression_info.errors.append(str(e))
+            expression_info.invalid_symbols.append(str(expression))
+            return expression_info
 
         # Check `expression` keys (validate)
         try:
diff --git a/tests/test_license_expression.py b/tests/test_license_expression.py
index 193fafd..a6a4306 100644
--- a/tests/test_license_expression.py
+++ b/tests/test_license_expression.py
@@ -2422,6 +2422,15 @@ def test_validation_invalid_license_key(self):
         assert result.errors == ["Unknown license key(s): cool-license"]
         assert result.invalid_symbols == ["cool-license"]
 
+    def test_validation_invalid_license_key_chara(self):
+        result = self.licensing.validate("cool,license")
+        assert result.original_expression == "cool,license"
+        assert not result.normalized_expression
+        assert result.errors == [
+            "Invalid license key: the valid characters are: letters and numbers, underscore, dot, colon or hyphen signs and spaces: 'cool,license'"
+        ]
+        assert result.invalid_symbols == ["cool,license"]
+
     def test_validate_exception(self):
         result = self.licensing.validate("GPL-2.0-or-later WITH WxWindows-exception-3.1")
         assert result.original_expression == "GPL-2.0-or-later WITH WxWindows-exception-3.1"