Berezin filed a key patent later cited by the National Inventors Hall of Fame as a milestone in business computer systems.
On December 30, 1960, Evelyn Berezin filed U.S. patent application US 3,253,262, titled "Data processing system." This filing would later be highlighted by the National Inventors Hall of Fame as a significant contribution to computer systems designed for business use.
By 1960, Berezin had become a leading systems designer, and this patent reflects the sophistication of her thinking about how computers could be architected specifically to serve commercial and administrative needs rather than purely scientific or military computation. Her data processing system designs would directly inform the real-time computer systems she developed for banking and airline reservations during the following years.
The historical significance of this patent lies in its recognition decades later as a foundational achievement in business computing—an area where Berezin's contributions were historically underappreciated relative to her male contemporaries. Her systems thinking here anticipated the transaction-processing architectures that underpin modern computing infrastructure, from banking networks to airline booking systems. This patent stands as a testament to her role as one of the unsung architects of the computerized business world, work that the National Inventors Hall of Fame would formally honor with her induction in 2022.