Can I register a domain name that’s similar to a trademark I don’t own?

Whether registering and using a domain name similar to an existing trademark creates legal risk depends significantly on several factors under the Trademarks Act, Chapter 416 of the Laws of Malta, and broader principles governing trademark infringement and passing off, including how similar the domain actually is to the registered mark, whether your business operates in the same or a related field where consumer confusion could genuinely arise, and whether the existing trademark has a strong reputation that might attract broader protection even outside its specific registered goods and services categories, particularly for well-known marks. Since you've described the existing trademark as belonging to an unrelated business in a different industry, the risk of genuine consumer confusion may be lower than if you were operating in the same or a closely related field, but this is not an automatic safe harbour, particularly if the existing trademark is well-known enough that using a similar domain could still be seen as taking unfair advantage of its reputation or diluting its distinctiveness, which some trademark protections specifically guard against regardless of the difference in industry. Given the genuine legal uncertainty in assessing exactly how much risk your specific situation carries, it would be worth having a lawyer review the actual similarity between your intended domain and the existing trademark, along with the specific circumstances, before you invest significant resources into building your brand around this particular domain name.