Carnesi’s work and SRI’s work grew up separately, about a year apart, and nothing in the record suggests the two teams ever crossed paths. Two of Mastercard’s own patents — one covering wearable-device payments, plus its follow-up filing — list the abandoned EyeWatch application as prior art. Somewhere inside Mastercard’s legal team, an examiner combing through payment-authentication prior art pulled Carnesi’s filing into the file. A career built on rules, not circuitsA profile The Leader Report ran in July 2026 sketches out who Carnesi is outside the patent filing. Arriving first and surviving the patent office aren’t the same accomplishment, and the more interesting read here isn’t a simple invention myth.