Antoinette (Toni) Tease is a registered patent attorney who practices in the areas of intellectual property and technology law. Before forming her own law firm in 2003, Ms. Tease was General Counsel for Rocky Mountain Technology Group, Inc., a software development company with its worldwide headquarters in Billings, Montana. From 1995 to 2001, Ms. Tease was a member of the law firm of Crowley, Haughey, Hanson, Toole & Deitrich, P.L.L.P., the region's largest law firm, where she represented clients in both high-tech and traditional industries in intellectual property matters. While at Crowley, Ms. Tease was a partner and Chair of the firm's Intellectual Property and Technology Practice Group. Before moving to Montana in 1995, Ms. Tease practiced with the law firms of Wiley, Rein & Fielding in Washington, D.C., and Shearman & Sterling in New York City. After graduation from law school in 1990, Ms. Tease clerked for United States District Judge David A. Ezra in Honolulu, Hawaii. Ms. Tease attended law school at the University of Connecticut School of Law, where she was a Notes and Comments Editor for the Connecticut Law Review, and where she graduated with High Honors in the top 3% of her class. Ms. Tease obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University, where she majored in Economics.

Ms. Tease is an active member of the American Bar Association Section of Intellectual Property Law. She is currently the Assistant Financial Officer for the Section. From 2007 to 2012, she served as a member of Council, the governing body of the ABA-IPL Section. She also served as Publications Officer and Chair of the Content Advisory Board from 2010 to 2012 and Vice Chair of the Content Advisory Board from 2007 to 2010. As Publications Officer, Ms. Tease was responsible for overseeing all of the Section's publications, including the Landslide magazine, the Annual Review, and all books published by the Section. Ms. Tease is former Chair of Division VII, Information Technology, and former Chair of the Committees on Computer Software Technology, Computer Programs, and Databases. Ms. Tease has served on the Section's Strategic Communications Task Force, which engaged in long-range planning, and she is currently on the Sponsorship Task Force. In addition, Ms. Tease is a former member of the Section's Patent Law Reform, Business Method Patents, and Chinese Patent Law Reform Task Forces. Ms. Tease has testified before the U.S. Senate Finance Committee on issues pertaining to intellectual property enforcement.

Ms. Tease serves on the Business Advisory Board for the Montana State University-Billings College of Business and was formerly on the Board of Advisors for the Montana Business Incubator in Billings. She is also a frequent speaker on intellectual property law topics and a former member of the Montana State Bar CLE Institute. In addition to being admitted to practice in Montana and New York, Ms. Tease is admitted to practice before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the U.S. Distruct Court for the District of Montana, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Ms. Tease is Treasurer of the Harvard Club of Montana.

Monika Hiott graduated cum laude from Clemson University in 1996 with a B.A. in English and a minor in Fine Art. Upon graduation, Ms. Hiott continued her education to become an English teacher. After volunteering in the classroom, she realized that teaching was not a good career fit for her. While researching various options to find a suitable career fit, Ms. Hiott worked in various office positions ranging from a financial aid counselor at a small, private university to a marketing coordinator at an engineering firm.

In 2004, Ms. Hiott became a degreed paralegal from a master's level ABA-Approved Program at UCSD San Diego. Since then, she has worked in a variety of legal offices of varying types of law, including divorce mediation, forensic psychiatry, bankruptcy and business mediation.

Ms. Hiott is excited to be a part of Tease Law for its commitment to excellence and to fulfilling its mission statement of protecting and defending the intellectual property of its clients. She joins the team as a Legal Assistant in the area of patents and litigation.