diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 5793d708..68eb2acf 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@ This project adheres to [Semantic Versioning](http://semver.org/).
 
 - Audience parameter now supports iterables [#205][205]
 
+- An invalid signature now raises an `InvalidSignatureError` instead of `DecodeError` [#315][315]
+
 ### Fixed
 
 ### Added
@@ -204,4 +206,5 @@ rarely used. Users affected by this should upgrade to 3.3+.
 [271]: https://github.com/jpadilla/pyjwt/pull/271
 [277]: https://github.com/jpadilla/pyjwt/pull/277
 [281]: https://github.com/jpadilla/pyjwt/pull/281
+[315]: https://github.com/jpadilla/pyjwt/pull/315
 [7c1e61d]: https://github.com/jpadilla/pyjwt/commit/7c1e61dde27bafe16e7d1bb6e35199e778962742
diff --git a/docs/api.rst b/docs/api.rst
index 4bb4d3b4..08b69915 100644
--- a/docs/api.rst
+++ b/docs/api.rst
@@ -19,6 +19,11 @@ Exceptions
 
     Raised when a token cannot be decoded because it failed validation
 
+.. class:: InvalidSignatureError
+
+    Raised when a token's signature doesn't match the one provided as part of
+    the token.
+
 .. class:: ExpiredSignatureError
 
     Raised when a token's ``exp`` claim indicates that it has expired
diff --git a/jwt/api_jws.py b/jwt/api_jws.py
index ad3ff6ae..b796fa76 100644
--- a/jwt/api_jws.py
+++ b/jwt/api_jws.py
@@ -7,7 +7,10 @@
     Algorithm, get_default_algorithms, has_crypto, requires_cryptography  # NOQA
 )
 from .compat import binary_type, string_types, text_type
-from .exceptions import DecodeError, InvalidAlgorithmError, InvalidTokenError
+from .exceptions import (
+    DecodeError, InvalidAlgorithmError, InvalidSignatureError,
+    InvalidTokenError
+)
 from .utils import base64url_decode, base64url_encode, force_bytes, merge_dict
 
 
@@ -203,7 +206,7 @@ def _verify_signature(self, payload, signing_input, header, signature,
             key = alg_obj.prepare_key(key)
 
             if not alg_obj.verify(signing_input, key, signature):
-                raise DecodeError('Signature verification failed')
+                raise InvalidSignatureError('Signature verification failed')
 
         except KeyError:
             raise InvalidAlgorithmError('Algorithm not supported')
diff --git a/jwt/exceptions.py b/jwt/exceptions.py
index 31177a0a..b396bf1f 100644
--- a/jwt/exceptions.py
+++ b/jwt/exceptions.py
@@ -6,6 +6,10 @@ class DecodeError(InvalidTokenError):
     pass
 
 
+class InvalidSignatureError(DecodeError):
+    pass
+
+
 class ExpiredSignatureError(InvalidTokenError):
     pass
 
diff --git a/tests/test_api_jws.py b/tests/test_api_jws.py
index 60671a29..4bf8d398 100644
--- a/tests/test_api_jws.py
+++ b/tests/test_api_jws.py
@@ -5,7 +5,8 @@
 from jwt.algorithms import Algorithm
 from jwt.api_jws import PyJWS
 from jwt.exceptions import (
-    DecodeError, InvalidAlgorithmError, InvalidTokenError
+    DecodeError, InvalidAlgorithmError, InvalidSignatureError,
+    InvalidTokenError
 )
 from jwt.utils import base64url_decode, force_bytes, force_unicode
 
@@ -178,8 +179,14 @@ def test_bad_secret(self, jws, payload):
         bad_secret = 'bar'
         jws_message = jws.encode(payload, right_secret)
 
-        with pytest.raises(DecodeError):
+        with pytest.raises(DecodeError) as excinfo:
+            # Backward compat for ticket #315
+            jws.decode(jws_message, bad_secret)
+        assert 'Signature verification failed' == str(excinfo.value)
+
+        with pytest.raises(InvalidSignatureError) as excinfo:
             jws.decode(jws_message, bad_secret)
+        assert 'Signature verification failed' == str(excinfo.value)
 
     def test_decodes_valid_jws(self, jws, payload):
         example_secret = 'secret'