Minnesota Law Mourns the Passing of Raymond Bogucki ’52, Longtime Patent Attorney

Longtime patent attorney Raymond A. Bogucki ’52 died last month at the age of 99.

Raised in Minneapolis by his Polish immigrant parents. Bogucki enlisted in the Army Air Corps during World War II and was trained as a fighter pilot. He was assigned to Air Transport Command and flew C-46s as a "Hump Pilot"—transporting supplies across the Himalayas between India and China, usually at night.

The GI Bill enabled Bogucki to attend the University of Notre Dame, where he received a degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1948. He graduated from University of Minnesota School of Law in 1952.

Bogucki's first job as an attorney was in the patent department at RCA in New Jersey. In 1956, he moved to Los Angeles to become Senior Patent Attorney at Hughes Aircraft. In 1958, he co-founded the firm of Fraser and Bogucki, later joining Merchant and Gould to establish its Los Angeles office, and eventually continuing in solo practice, until his semi-retirement in 2015, at the age of 93.

Bogucki's ability to craft patents with broad, strong, defensible claims that stood the test of time established his stellar reputation in intellectual property. Over the decades, he worked on a wide range of inventions—from oil drilling, precision optics and thermo control systems to a plasma pheresis device, early computer disk drives and optical fiber system automation.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Youth ALIVE!, one of Ray's favorite organizations.

Related:

• Obituary: Raymond A. Bogucki (Los Angeles Times)