Patent application of Jeff Bezos: PROTECTING DEVICES FROM IMPACT DAMAGE

Published US application 20110194230 ( 12/703,919 ) with inventors Hart and Bezos has first claim:

A method for protecting a portable device that includes an airbag deployable from a side of the portable device, comprising:
detecting that the portable device will impact a surface; prior to impact with the surface,
determining if a risk of damage to the portable device from the impact exceeds a damage threshold; when the risk of damage to the portable device exceeds the damage threshold:
altering the orientation of the portable device such that the air bag first impacts the surface; and
deploying the airbag prior to impact with the surface.

The application comprises illustrative figures, but no working examples.

The USPTO indicates there is a corresponding PCT application: PCT/US11/24392 filed on 02-10-2011 which is Published claims the benefit of 12/703,919

One notes that the prosecution file of 12/703,919 contains a PTO/SB26 form
[ "rescission of previous nonpublication request" ] signed by Scott R. Hayden and dated on 3 March 2011.

The relevant rule on rescinding is found within MPEP 1123 and shows compliance:

An applicant who has made a request under clause (i) but who subsequently files, in a foreign country or under a multilateral international agreement specified in clause (i), an application directed to the invention disclosed in the application filed in the Patent and Trademark Office, shall notify the Director of such filing not later than 45 days after the date of the filing of such foreign or international application. A failure of the applicant to provide such notice within the prescribed period shall result in the application being regarded as abandoned, unless it is shown to the satisfaction of the Director that the delay in submitting the notice was unintentional.

[Note also 37 CFR 1.213 Nonpublication request.]