I am writing and self publishing a childrens book and I would appreciate some advice.
I hired an illustrator and designed 7 main characters (not copied from an existing character, all from my own imagination).
I have posted my characters on a few pages and a few people have said they remind them of the mr men and little miss characters. I know that for trademark infringement my characters would need to be mistaken for the mr men and little miss to be infringing their trademark, and when asked, people say no they wouldn't be mistaken for them, they just remind them of them.
However it still makes me nervous, even although the only similarity I see is the idea may be similar as they are small characters with hair, arms, legs and faces, and they are all different colours. There is only copyright on an expression of an idea, not an idea and my story style is very different to any mr men story. This makes me hopeful I am fine.
My characters have all the same shape, the same faces as each other (their face isn't same as any mr men or little miss character, the shape is vaguely similar to one character), and they all wear trainers. The mr men and little miss are all different shapes, and have different characteristics which each story is based on, my characters have first names like you and me, and there is no focus on characteristics like shy, grumpy, happy, etc.
I can't afford the £800+ for a lawyers advice and personally feel I shouldn't be approached about infringement as there are many differences and saying they remind them of doesnt necessarily mean I am breaching copyright but it very much unnerves me.
I have put so much time, money and love into this book and would hate to not be able to go ahead when I didn't copy anyone's work and it was all my own 
. I am nervous I could get sued too so I am so confused.