Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Pennsylvania

Re: Contract Law

A public forum such as this cannot be a source for legal advice on specific real-world situations, partly because such situations typically involve factors that are omitted from the question. For example, you say that you are an "independent contractor" but don't give further details, and you don't provide a copy of the contract, which might contain language that would impact on the result. You don't say WHEN the training manual was written, which is important as the law regarding ownership of copyright has changed over the years. Thus, for legal advice, you would need to consult an attorney to whom you would reveal all the background facts and who would advise you confidentially.

However, subject to the foregoing, I would comment that in general, an independent contractor owns the copyright of a work that was recently created, unless the copyright has been transferred by a written "assignment" of ownership at some time.

And, yes, it looks like the communication you received is premised on the assumption that the company owns that copyright. So there is a discrepancy that would be appropriate to resolve if there is a reasonable possibility that some copies of this book are going to be sold by you or under license from you.