Big Room Inc.

Type:	Privately held (B-Corporation)
Industry:	Internet
Founded:	2007
Founder(s):	Trevor Bowden, Jacob Malthouse Anastasia O'Rourke
Headquarters:	Vancouver, British Columbia
Country:	Canada
Email:	hello[at]bigroo.ca
Website:	bigroom.ca
LinkedIn:	Big Room Inc.
Key People
Trevor Bowden Jacob Malthouse Anastasia O'Rourke

Big Room Inc. is a Canadian based company and one of the applicants for the .eco top level domain name. The company is widely recognized in developing the Ecolabel Index, a worldwide directory of eco labels. It has partnered with Afilias, Meridian Institute and Deloitte to submit its application as a community gTLD.

Trevor Bowden, Jacob Malthouse and Anastasia O'Rourke founded the company in 2007. From the very beginning, they presented their plan to operate the .eco gTLD to different ecological communities, environmental organizations and investors such as Renewal Partners and David Levi, CEO of Working Enterprises. Levi supported the .eco initiative and provided additional business expertise, strategy and financial support. Big Room Inc. also gained the support of the David Suzuki Foundation, the Worldwide Wildlife Fund, Green Cross International, Green Peace and other organizations. See the company's partners for the .eco gTLD initiative here

The founders of Big Room Inc. recognized the risk of applying the .eco string as a community gTLD, but they believe that this method to be the only opportunity for the eco community to have their own space on the Internet. According to Malthouse, "There’s a big difference between commercial and community" and he is hoping that the company would succeed in the application process.

.Eco Community Council

For the past two years Big Room Inc. had been collaborating and coordinating its .eco gTLD with various environmental and social advocates, and both for-profit and non-profit entities across the world. Some of the entities in support of the initiative volunteered to serve as part of the .Eco Community Council. These organizations include:

• Akatu Institute, Co-chair
• WWF International, Co-Chair
• B-Lab
• Beth Wallace
• Conservation International
• David Suzuki Foundation
• Developmental Alternatives
• Greenbelt Movement
• Green Cross International
• Green.TV
• Green Peace
• Iseal Alliance
• Responsible Purchasing Network
• UL Environment
• Verite

History of Contention

.eco was identified as a contentious TLD early on, with the main parties being Big Room Inc., and Dot Eco LLC.. Dot Eco LLC was aligned with former Vice-President of the USA, Al Gore, and the Alliance for Climate Protection, the Sierra Club and Surfrider Foundation. Big Room Inc. was, at that time, largely associated with Mikhail Gorbachev, the Russian ex-president, Green Cross International and WWF International. In August 2009, Dot Eco LLC released a 'green paper' critiquing Big Room Inc.'s approach. Big Room did not respond to the critique other than that it was 'unfortunate'.

On September 28, 2011, Al Gore's organization, the Climate Reality project dropped its support for Dot Eco LLC bid to give deference to the application of Big Room Inc., which is supported by Michael Gorbachev's Green Cross International. A spokesman from Gore's camp explained that Climate Reality as a non-profit organization has limited resources and they decided to focus their campaign on global climate issues. Despite losing Gore's support, Minds + Machines announced its intentions to apply for a .eco TLD, it was initially unclear whether they would do that under their own name or through a client.

Top Level Domains Holding Ltd., the parent company of Minds + Machines which held 25% stake on Dot Eco LLC confirmed that the company will apply for the .eco gTLD. Peter Dengate Thrush, Executive Chairman of Top Level Domains Holding said,"...We believe the Dot Eco LLC consortium is exceptionally well placed to compete in every respect of its .eco application and run that gTLD in a meaningful manner. We are therefore delighted to continue give it our full infrastructural and financial support." However, they did not apply though the Dot Eco LLC venture but instead on their own behalf. Antony Van Couvering previously stated that applying for a community gTLD is too risky. He believes that the .eco TLD will not pass ICANN's Community Priority Evaluation.

Planet Dot Eco, LLC, a company based in Connecticut and trademark holder of .eco and an applicant for the .eco string, filed an infringement case against Big Room Inc. and Dot Eco LLC on March 2, 2012. The complainant asked the court to order Big Room and Dot Eco LLC to stop submitting further documentation and withdraw their application for the .eco string with ICANN. Dot Eco LLC responded to the complaint with an argument that the trademark was obtained illegally by Planet.eco and it should be cancelled by the court. Dot Eco also argued that the complainant is is trying to prevent competition. Big Room filed a motion to dismiss because of lack of jurisdiction.

Top-Level Domain