As you've described it, you should be paying a cent already. Makes me interested what's in the qs mix that we're not aware of.

It's a known issue. If you bid on "fghdjhgdhhghhjdfhgdfgdhjfdghjdghj" you're unlikely to be offered a 0.01 bid, even though nobody else is probably bidding on that term. Don't ask me why...

Currently I am bidding on my own company name. It is trademarked, so i am the only one able to bid on it.

Not necessarily. If your name is trademarked, it can't be used in anyone else's ad copy - but nothing I'm aware of prevents anyone from bidding on it.

Quality Score is also independent of how many advertisers are currently showing on a search query. The historic performance of advertisers on that term impacts the QS for the keyword, and can impact minimum CPC requirements even if there are no other active advertisers. If advertisers have historically not done well on a keyword term, the system will expect the same from your ads until they have proven otherwise.

AWA2

P.S. There is also some value to having your ad appear on a search query where you are already highly placed in the natural results. The impression itself starts to gain value through the additional brand placement despite the ad generally having a low clickthrough rate.

Not necessarily. If your name is trademarked, it can't be used in anyone else's ad copy - but nothing I'm aware of prevents anyone from bidding on it.

This actually depends whether you target your ad. Bidding on trademarked keywords is allowed only in the US/Canada. In other parts of the world the rules are stricter and you can't put a trademark in your keywords list.
Using a trademark in the ad text itself is prohibited everywhere.

<<Quality Score is also independent of how many advertisers are currently showing on a search query. The historic performance of advertisers on that term impacts the QS for the keyword, and can impact minimum CPC requirements even if there are no other active advertisers. If advertisers have historically not done well on a keyword term, the system will expect the same from your ads until they have proven otherwise. >>

I suspect that no-one has ever used my name for a key word on AdWords - there's certainly never been any ads displayed on that term for the time I've had an account. So, of course, other advertisers have historically not done well (because there's probably never been an adWord campaign ever attached to the terms!).

That I can't use my own name, or my website/domain name (I've tried all!), without paying a highly inflated price for these keywords, seems a little absurd.

Essentially, you are saying that we have to pay the premium asking price, because unless we pay enough to activate it, we'll otherwise never be able to gain any clicks on that word to give it a history?

Could I also ask, how common is it in people's experience for AdWords to *reduce* the CPC at any time during a keyword's life?

Not necessarily. If your name is trademarked, it can't be used in anyone else's ad copy - but nothing I'm aware of prevents anyone from bidding on it.

It is my understanding that a trademark owner can send a letter to google stating that they wouldnt like anyone to bid on their trademark term and google will then not allow you to 'buy' the keyword.

Ha! I've now got to eat (half of) my words.

By some very strange coincidence, my name has very, very recently become active as a keyword. It's still up very close to the maximum I was prepared to bid, but at least it's gaining click-throughs.

It's taken 8 months for that to activate itself.

However, my domain name refuses to be budged from its inert position, unless I at least double my bid.