Domain flipping: questions from a newbie

Hi all

I'm not going to get in to the detail, but my life is rough and I need to find new ways to generate income.

I'm already pretty good with computers and can comfortably build my own websites etc, so I've been doing a lot of research about IM in general.

Two areas in particular have stood out as popular; CPA/CPL affiliate marketing, and domain flipping (maybe 'trading' is a better term).

Domain trading seems a lot more appealing to me personally, perhaps exploring affiliate marketing more in the future.

I've already spent a few days reading as much as I can about domain trading, but there are still a couple of thins that I'm not 100% sure about, I'd really appreciate it if someone could please give some advice on this.

1) I've been looking at a domain on NameJet. The auction closes in xx hours, but when I do a whois search on the domain it says that it isn't due to expire until April 2015. Can someone please explain exactly how this works? If I won the auction, do I gain ownership now? Or would I only get ownership once the domain expires in April 2015?

2) How do trademarks work with domains? I already know a bit about IP and trademarks in particular, but my knowledge in relation to domains is lacking.

More specifically, for example, let's assume that I bid and won the domain chanelperfume.com which currently a blank URL. Would I then be able to approach Chanel ltd and offer it to them?

It seems buying a domain with a trademarked name would be a no no, but if this is the case how come I just bought it off some other guy who's been holding onto it for the last 4 years and done nothing with it?

I guess another part of this question surrounds actual trading. ie, if I had chanelperfume.com but didn't actively use it to trade, is there still a IP issue?

Thanks to everyone who can give some advice on these matters, or even if you could point me to some resources which can explain this that would be fine too.

Thanks!

/edit In my example above (chanelperfume.com), it is currently listed as a 'prerelease' - just added this, in case it changes any potential answer to my questions.