is that okay? I see many people do it, but is it alright to do so? for instance I see a lot of people bid on and have "motorola" in their ad text. Some other company names on the other hand have zero or very few advertisers so I'm unsure what to think.
Some companies allow it, some don't. Just set them up if if there's problem G' will just yank the ad. Happens to me all the time.
This went to court, so its very high profile. The outcome: You are not allowed to have the name in the ad, but you are allowed to have the name in your keywords. It all depends on your own ethics!
If you are promoting an affiliate program the company usually let you know quite clearly if they don't want you using their name. Not always though so sometimes it's better to drop them a line and find out for certain.
That applies to US and Canada, but Google will consider removing trademarks in keywords outside of US/Canada if the trademark owners files a complaint. The AdWords trademark policy is explained clearly in these blog posts: http://adwords.blogspot.com/2006/12/adwords-trademark-policy-part-1-of-2.html http://adwords.blogspot.com/2006/12/adwords-trademark-policy-part-2-of-2.html
You could also risk making it personal... if you get into an adwords war with all your competitors, it may get grim
I'd suggest setting these up as a separate AdGroup and not using the companies names (or dynamic keyword insertion) in the ad text. Other than that, as GuyFromChicago said, run the ads and see what happens, some may get pulled but most probably won't.