Business Notes NEW PRODUCTS

When Toyota unveiled its sleek new line of luxury cars last week at auto shows in Detroit and Los Angeles, nervous company officials stood by with rolls of tape. Their task: to cover up the new product's name, Lexus, if a three-judge appellate panel in New York City barred Toyota from using it. Not until the judges permitted the name to be used, at least through Jan. 30, did the Toyota employees return to wholehearted sales pitches for the stylish car, which will compete in the $20,000-to-$40,000 price range.

The ruling was the latest turn in a dispute between Toyota and Ohio-based Mead Data Central, which since 1973 has offered a computerized legal- information service called Lexis. In December a federal judge in Manhattan upheld Mead's complaint that Lexus infringed on the Lexis trademark, and ordered Toyota to drop the name or pay Mead unspecified damages.

Toyota said it will be forced to replace the Lexus name unless the dispute is favorably resolved within 60 days. The Lexus is scheduled to roll into showrooms in September, so any further delay could prevent the new line from being launched at the start of the 1990 model-year.