The University of Colorado, head football coach Deion Sanders and Nike have almost reached a deal to sell co-branded apparel that includes the intellectual property of both CU, as well as Coach Prime's brand.
According to Sportico, the three parties are "getting close" to signing a special licensing agreement that has been in the works since last fall.
CU, Sanders and Nike are all looking to capitalize on the attention that has been paid to to the Buffaloes' football program after Prime, along with his two player sons, signed on at the school.
Sportico reports that a draft of the revenue-sharing agreement from January, which was obtained through a public records request, makes direct reference to the ongoing talks between the school and Nike. It says the university is negotiating a “special license type agreement” that will carry an 18 percent royalty for Nike “Prime 21” merchandise that includes university marks. The document includes blank spaces to clarify how those proceeds will be split between Sanders’ company, Prime Time Enterprises, and Colorado’s athletic department.
Sanders’s Prime Time Enterprises currently has 38 pending trademark applications, according to the running tally being kept by intellectual property lawyer Josh Gerben.
In addition to the co-branding clause in Sanders’s contract, it also contains an unusual provision, as Sportico previously reported, which allows him to avoid creating a paper trail of his athletically-related outside income, by instead providing a “verbal accounting” of those earnings to CU’s athletic director and chancellor.
