1. Well, they could call the puppet character a Muppet and thus keep it a fully in-house production
Hypothetically, they could. They could get Puppet Heap to build it, they've got someone who has worked with The Muppets before, and they could even call it a Muppet series. Hypothetically.
Though they also could keep it a separate puppet project from the Muppets (even if they use Puppet Heap) for branding sake.
All and all, it's too soon to tell, but I'm sure there could be the same problem Henson's having with their Puppet Neighbors series being coined as a new Muppet project by uninformed internet entertainment reporters.