Mastercard’s patent mix has started to tilt toward agentic payments. Visa’s has not moved
Mastercard increased total patent output and pushed into frontier technologies such as AI agents and quantum resistance, whereas Visa’s publication volume contracted 18.4%. Credit: Shutterstock Patent publications fell 14.1% in the 10 months to July 2026 against the same period a year earlier, counted by publication date to keep the comparison like for like. The…