I don't know what name you are looking at but look at how many successful websites there are that have a name no one would ever think of buying because they are a made up word (like Ebay)

I don't know for sure how the process would work but I know you can transfer domains so I suppose you just pay the money and they tell whomever they registered the name with to transfer it to you. I suppose if you are worried about getting screwed over you would have to do a contract of some kind.