Fair use law with popular fictional names

[nini5]

here is the situstion:
in my novel,curently being written some of my characters compare a team of my characters with a popular fictional team from a specific company,both company and team names are in the same sentence,but that is also where the similarities end. my characteds are unique and were never inspired by the pkpular companys team. question is can I use the name of the company and team within fair use law.
here is part of the sentence,with the company and team names substitutrd with +++ and ---

"...thd other two jokingly dubbed "+++" - after the very popular "---" characters...."

[joannekwan]

Names themselves can't be copyrighted and if it's nothing more than a one-time name-drop then the company would really look bad to go after you for something as benign as that.

[Buurd]

I agree with joanne's comment, but if you're really worried about the possibility, you could always go for parody names. Something similar enough people can catch on what you're referencing, without using the real thing.
Like how comics use Wcdonalds/Wacdonalds, or variations of Google with the G swapped.

[Lady_DarkStar]

Not knowing the company name, or particulars, they may be trademarked. Not the same as copyrighted. As such, it wouldn't fall under the fair use laws. If they are trademarked, you have to use the trademark symbol with the names.

[joannekwan]

Trademark symbols are usually used only with logos, if the op is just writing it in a novel I think they're fine getting away with just the company name.
Like any wiki article that mentions company names will just have the company name without any marker following it.