[Shog9]

Wouldn't have to be. You don't have to partner with SO to allow folks to ask questions about your product; they just have to be programming questions. Ideally good ones. Also helps a lot if you answer them.

If you want to go further than that, there are various levels of sponsorship possible for a tag, and [internet-explorer] has been sponsored at some level for at least a year. These grant you various advertising and branding privileges, but do not otherwise affect how questions are asked/answered within that tag.

Disclaimer: I work for Stack Exchange but am not involved in the sales or marketing side of things.