§2B5.3 Criminal Infringement of Copyright or Trademark: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2019
All 47 people sentenced under §2B5.3 in fiscal year 2019 pleaded guilty. 26 (55%) received a prison term with a median of 12 months, and 12 (26%) received probation only. 12 people (26%) were sentenced within the guideline range.
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Trends › Federal Prosecution Analysis › §2B5.3 Criminal Infringement of Copyright or Trademark › §2B5.3: FY2019
In brief: All 47 people sentenced under §2B5.3 in fiscal year 2019 pleaded guilty. 26 (55%) received a prison term with a median of 12 months, and 12 (26%) received probation only. 12 people (26%) were sentenced within the guideline range.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 47 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2019. Acquittals and dismissals come from a second source, the Federal Judicial Center's records of 753,808 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. It is part of the Federal Prosecution Analysis series, which builds on Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System. How the numbers were built: How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built.
Everyone in the Group Pleaded Guilty
In fiscal year 2019, the U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 47 people whose primary guideline was §2B5.3. That guideline is titled "Criminal Infringement of Copyright or Trademark" in the Guidelines Manual, and the primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count.
All 47 (100%) pleaded guilty, and no one was convicted after a trial. 94% of the guilty pleas had a written plea agreement, and 6% were straight pleas with no agreement.
The Commission's files include only people who were convicted and sentenced. Defendants who were acquitted, or whose cases were dismissed, are not counted.
Length of Prison Terms
26 of the 47 people (55%) were sentenced to prison, and 12 (26%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement.
The median prison term among those sent to prison was 12 months. A quarter received 28.5 months or more, and a quarter received 6 months or less. A mandatory minimum prison term applied to none of the 47 people (0%).
Supervised release after prison was ordered for 26 people (55%), with a median term of 36 months. A fine was ordered for 9 (19%), and restitution for 28 (60%).
Position Against the Guideline Range
Within the range: 26% (12 people). Below the range at the government's request: 43% (20). Below the range without a government request: 32% (15). Above the range: none.
The within-range share was higher than the all-years share for this guideline, 19%, and lower than the 51% share for every guideline in fiscal year 2019.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 84 | 16 months | 99% |
| 2017 | 82 | 17 months | 94% |
| 2018 | 70 | 12 months | 99% |
| 2019 | 47 | 12 months | 100% |
| 2020 | 37 | 10 months | 100% |
| 2021 | 36 | 12 months | 100% |
| 2022 | 24 | 4 months | 100% |
| 2023 | 44 | 24 months | 89% |
| 2024 | 35 | 12 months | 100% |
| 2025 | 40 | 12 months | 85% |
Criminal History
89% of the group were in criminal history category I, the lowest category. None (0%) were in category VI, the highest. Court-martial records have no criminal history field, so there is nothing to set beside this figure.
Fiscal Year 2019 Beside Other Years and All Cases
Fiscal year 2018 had 70 people under §2B5.3, a median prison term of 12 months, and 11% within the range. Fiscal year 2020 had 37 people, a median prison term of 10 months, and 14% within the range.
From fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 499 people were sentenced under this guideline. 58% went to prison, the median prison term was 12 months, and 96% pleaded guilty.
Federal courts sentenced 76,538 people under all guidelines in fiscal year 2019. The median prison term for that group was 21 months, and 98% pleaded guilty. The Commission's offense type for the 47 cases here is Forgery/Counter/Copyright.
Limits of the Count
Fiscal year 2019 began on October 1, 2018 and ended on September 30, 2019. The terms reported are those imposed, not time served. A group of 47 is not large enough to show a trend.
No close court-martial counterpart for this guideline appears in the approved crosswalk, so this post reports federal numbers only. The records do not explain why any sentence was set where it was.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2019 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2B5.3 (47), U.S. Sentencing Commission individual data files. The primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count.
Federal fiscal years run from October 1 to September 30. No person, judge, or lawyer is identified in any of these records.
What to Keep in Mind
No parole in federal prison; credit for good conduct. Federal prison has no parole for crimes committed on or after November 1, 1987. A federal prisoner can earn up to 54 days of good conduct credit for each year of the sentence the judge imposed, which is about 15%. Some federal prisoners can also earn First Step Act time credits, but many offenses make a person ineligible. The numbers in this post are the sentences judges imposed, not the time people actually served.
Federal supervised release. Most federal prison sentences are followed by a term of supervised release that the judge sets as part of the sentence. A person who violates it can be sent back to prison. A court-martial cannot sentence anyone to supervision after release. Military parole and mandatory supervised release are decided later by a board, not by the judge at trial.
Who decides the sentence, and under what rules. Federal judges sentence every federal case. They must calculate the Sentencing Guidelines range, which is advisory, and must impose any mandatory minimum the statute requires unless an exception applies. In courts-martial, the accused could choose sentencing by members until the rules changed. For cases in which every guilty finding is for an offense committed after December 27, 2023, a military judge sentences alone, within sentencing parameters. Courts-martial tried in 2024 and later include both old-rule and new-rule cases, and the data cannot tell them apart.
Time periods. Federal numbers are by federal fiscal year (October 1 to September 30), based on the sentencing date. The military numbers are by trial date. Neither source has the date of the offense, so a change in law shows up in either data set gradually.
How life sentences and "time served" are counted. In the federal numbers, a life sentence is counted as 470 months, and any other sentence longer than 470 months is counted as just under 470 months. A sentence of "time served" is counted as one day (0.03 months). Averages are affected by these rules; medians much less.
Related Analysis
- Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System (the background article)
- Federal Prosecution Analysis (all federal posts)
- How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built (sources and method)
- §2B5.3 Criminal Infringement of Copyright or Trademark: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2B5.3 Criminal Infringement of Copyright or Trademark: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2018 (previous or next fiscal year)
- §2B5.3 Criminal Infringement of Copyright or Trademark: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2020 (previous or next fiscal year)
- How Often Federal Judges Sentence Outside the Guideline Range
- Mandatory Minimums: How Many Federal Sentences Are Set by Congress
- U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles (source)
- Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants) (source)
About the author. Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts Where All The Bodies Are Buried and runs the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.