A surface-independent coherent light optical mouse design was patented by Stephen B. Jackson at Xerox in 1988.

Xerox's inventions were never massively commercially exploited, however, and optical mice would remain elusive in the personal computer market until Microsoft released the IntelliMouse with IntelliEye and IntelliMouse Explorer in 1999. These mice used technology developed by Hewlett-Packard under their Agilent Technologies