Required.
As long as it is used for commercial purposes, copyright support is required. For product development or authorization, you only need to register the main graphics of the character, such as the front or half side, or you can add four views. In fact, the copyright registration of fine arts works in my country is a bit fragmented. In name, only the graphics are protected, and the name is not protected. And appearance patent, but its actual significance is to protect the graphic as a "character" in this form, and to play the role of prosecution and evidence when it is infringed.
IP means copyright. Copyright is authorship, which refers to the rights that authors of literary, artistic, and scientific works have over their works, including property rights and personal rights. Copyright is a type of intellectual property that consists of works in the natural sciences, social sciences, and literature, music, drama, painting, sculpture, photography, and cinematography.