A court declaration from Deion Sanders became publicly available Friday, revealing new details about a lawsuit involving a graphic designer.
Sanders is alleged to have convinced Alan Tipp to sign away his rights to two logos he claims he designed for Sanders' personal brand.
The logos, which include the words "Prime" and "Truth" within the design, have become much more prominently used in recent years, according to the lawsuit, as Sanders' visibility has increased as head coach of the University of Colorado
football team.
Sanders, who was deposed last month, filed a statement Friday that his usage of the logos predates Tipp's timeline, which had Tipp creating the logos in 2011 for Sanders in advance of the launch of Sanders' "Prime Prep Academy."
The rights were set to transfer from Tipp to Sanders in August of that year.
The alternate timeline has Sanders engaging with the logos thanks to an endorsement deal he inked with Under Armour earlier that same year, in April.
"No one at Under Armour, or anyone else, objected to my use of these logos until this lawsuit was filed," Sanders' statement read.
Tipp, a Nebraska resident, filed the lawsuit in January 2025, alleging he was never compensated for his work on the logos and that an associate of Sanders, Sam Morini, persuaded him to sign away his rights in exchange for promised work that was never delivered.
"Each of these statements were false at the time they were made and Morini, (talent agency) SMAC, and Sanders knew them to be false statements of fact," the lawsuit reads. "Shortly after Tipp executed the Agreement, Sanders and his representatives began evading Tipp."
Sanders is currently attempting to trademark "Prime" usage across various designs through his organization Prime Time Enterprises, and a win by Tipp would curtail that effort.
--Field Level Media
