1, according to the situation you described, you only need to apply for copyright protection of anime characters and trademark protection of anime character names, and there is no actual need to apply for patents;

Because there are three kinds of patent applications, namely invention patent, utility model patent and design patent, invention and utility model refer to the invention and improvement of technology and method, but your situation does not belong to these two kinds, while design patent refers to the brand-new design of general products, so your cartoon characters do not belong to this kind. Therefore, you should not apply for patent rights, but for copyright and trademark rights;

2. Applying for copyright is to protect your anime character, that is, if someone uses the same anime character as you without authorization in the future, it is an infringement of your copyright, and you can fight it through copyright;

The purpose of applying for a trademark is to crack down on people's names used on goods without authorization, or to take rights protection measures when making some changes to your cartoon characters;

Just like the most popular Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf, they all applied for copyrights and applied for trademarks on related products, avoiding all the hairless cartoon images.

3. To apply for copyright, you have to go through the relevant formalities with the China Copyright Bureau, while to apply for a trademark is to go through the formalities with the China Trademark Office;

4. We are a professional intellectual property agency, and we can help you deal with copyright and trademark rights, so if you still need advice or help, you can contact me at any time through Baidu HI.