As I've said elsewhere, this is a classic example of Linden Lab doing the right thing, but messing up the messaging about it because they really don't work with communities very well.

The branding programme is basically about providing a set of tools and licenses for companies to use LL trademarks ("Second Life", etc) as part of their own marketing materials, so they don't have to go to LL for approval for everything they do. That's A Good Thing, as it will make it much cheaper for real world businesses to do things in SL without involving lawyers.

However, how it has come across is "every blog, web page and news site on the net will now have to put TM after every mention of our trademarks, or we will sue". Of course, that's nonsense: fair use for trademarks is clear and easy to understand (much more so that for copyright, I'd say) and means you don't need any license from Linden Lab to write about "Linden Lab". As long as you're using the trademarks in a nominative way (ie to refer to the actual product, not to a generic product type) and not in a way which suggests you're affiliated with the trademark owner, you're cool - no TM required.