He was an engineer and inventor who was co-inventor of the computer mouse. He built the first mouse in 1963, using a concept of his colleague Doug Engelbart. The first version was a wooden block with a button and two rolling wheels at 90-degree angles. Neither English or Engelbart could remember who decided the device should be called a "mouse". Their invention was patented but was owned by their employer, and the intellectual property rights expired in 1987, so neither of them profited greatly from their invention.