Sounds eerily similar to a key plot point in Walkaway [1]. Except there it was not the 3rd world, but people walking away from 1st (default) world. The IP was originally public domain/govt. funded in the book though (you could make an argument that a lot of new research patents have govt. funding in there somewhere, depending on how basic you want to go).

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkaway_(Doctorow_novel)