Sacramento Man Sentenced to Prison for Criminal Trademark Infringement

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Xavier L. Johnson, 37, of Sacramento, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. to two years and six months in prison and three years of supervised release for trafficking in goods bearing counterfeit trademarks, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

According to court documents, from 2008 to 2011, Johnson and co-defendant Kristin Caldwell imported DVDs from China that contained counterfeit versions of children’s movies. They advertised and sold those DVDs throughout the United States using websites on which they claimed that they had obtained limited quantities of the movies. The DVDs bore counterfeit trademarks, including the names of the movies, the names of the movie studios, and other terms that were registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

This case was the product of an investigation by the United States Postal Inspection Service and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Morris prosecuted the case.

Other defendants charged in this case and the status of their charges are:

• Kristin M. Caldwell, 35, of Sacramento, was sentenced by Judge Burrell on August 4, 2017, and was ordered to spend six months on home confinement as a condition of probation.
• William L. Brown, of Sacramento, pleaded guilty on May 5, 2017 to aiding and abetting criminal copyright infringement. He is scheduled to be sentenced on January 19, 2018.