A gist by Miles Sabin may give you a hint:

trait Companion[T] {
  type C
  def apply() : C
}

object Companion {
  implicit def companion[T](implicit comp : Companion[T]) = comp()
}

object TestCompanion {
  trait Foo

  object Foo {
    def bar = "wibble"

    // Per-companion boilerplate for access via implicit resolution
    implicit def companion = new Companion[Foo] {
      type C = Foo.type
      def apply() = Foo
    }
  }

  import Companion._

  val fc = companion[Foo]  // Type is Foo.type
  val s = fc.bar           // bar is accessible
}

This should be compiled with the -Ydependent-method-types flag if using Scala 2.9.x.

You could use reflection to get the companion class and its instance, but that relies on Scala internals that might change in some far(?) future. And there is no type safety as you get an AnyRef. But there is no need to add any implicits to your classes and objects.

def companionOf[T : Manifest] : Option[AnyRef] = try{
  val classOfT = implicitly[Manifest[T]].erasure
  val companionClassName = classOfT.getName + "$"
  val companionClass = Class.forName(companionClassName)
  val moduleField = companionClass.getField("MODULE$")
  Some(moduleField.get(null))
} catch {
  case e => None
}

case class A(i : Int)

companionOf[A].collect{case a : A.type  => a(1)}
// res1: Option[A] = Some(A(1))