or you can TM the name and see if a lawyer's letter will convince them that they should hand over the domain, although that's sort of evil and it didn't work out well for Nissan (http://www.nissan.com).
Or yeah, contact the owner directly, that's an easy way to figure out if they're interested, although any interest immediately makes the psychological value of the domain go way up for the owner.
a word of caution I back ordered on my old employers site that went out of business. no one wanted it so I used a company to make sure I got it and suprise suprise someone else got it and I was offered it at an inflated rate. I told them no thanks.
you could try and buy it via proxy using godaddy.
first I would try the direct approach myself personally.
You can use a service like afternic's assisted offers: http://www.afternic.com/uoffer.php
or you can TM the name and see if a lawyer's letter will convince them that they should hand over the domain, although that's sort of evil and it didn't work out well for Nissan (http://www.nissan.com).
Or yeah, contact the owner directly, that's an easy way to figure out if they're interested, although any interest immediately makes the psychological value of the domain go way up for the owner.