Honey, Bark, Bean & etc are under the creative control of SEGA AM2, the same division making Virtua Fighter & Shenmue.
While they're SEGA Sammy property, due to how "kabushiki-gaisha" businesses work in Japan, the creative teams have sovereignty to the stuff they worked on.
Something interesting:
Sonic Team does not allow writers to use Honey the Cat (outside of small cameos), because of her being a tribute to the Virtua Fighter character, which they consider part of a seperate license.
Bean the Dynamite, on the other hand, is allowed. (1/2)