Using real stars, places, products, brand names

Greeting,
I'm a newbie.
Can anyone help me with the guidelines for writers using real names, such as hotels, malls, drinks products (like Coca Cola) or stars?
Thanks so much for the help.

IceCreamEmpress said:

You don't need to get permission to use the name of a trademarked product, a public figure, or a public place in fiction. However, as Prawn says, you're open to challenges if you invent anything even remotely defamatory about the item, person, or place.

The other area of legal conflict would be if you infringed on anyone's right to exploit their intellectual property or brand. So, for instance, you can't write a book called The Disney World Book of Fairy Tales or The Oreo Cookie Recipe Collection without permission of those entities.

OK: He stopped outside the gates of Disney World, waiting for Joan to arrive. He took a long drink from the bottle of Evian he had 'liberated' from the hotel lobby.

Not OK: He stopped outside the gates of Disney World, waiting for Joan to arrive so that they could join in the weekly craps game that took place behind the "Pirates of the Caribbean" ride. He thought about drinking a bottle of Evian someone had left on a bench, but then remembered that it was full of mercury and other toxins.

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Yep, that's what I meant by using real products name to make it sound like we are real people drinking Cola or Evian, and in real places instead of imaginary hotels or something. I wouldn't use the names for purposely intended to exploit their intellectual property or brand, but what if something bad happened in that place that had nothing to do with them? Say if we ate at the hotel's restaurant XX and then got into a fierce fight (surely not over the bad food ;-)) or stayed in Harvard dormitory, but were kicked out by the administration board for some reason?
Contrariwise, I assumed it would be ok if I give the places a good appraisal (say like in good ambiance), or describe their places?

Thanks a lot. I appreciate all the inputs.

Shweta said:

I wonder if this question would get more useful answers in the Roundtable. It doesn't seem to me to be novel-specific information... so would you like me to move it over and see?

Also, wow, several of you here joined just this month! Big to you all!

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Thanks for the warm welcome.
Where's the Roundtable's section? (sorry, I'm still very new here, think I've read somewhere but not sure where it is).
I wouldn't mind (as long as I could find it).

Thanks again for the attention.