IN BRIEF : Lexus May Have to Change Name

The Lexus name for Toyota Motor Corp.’s new luxury car division will be history if a federal appeals court rules against it in a lawsuit, a company official says.

“We’ll have to change our name,” Lexus General Manager Dave Illingworth said Thursday, if the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York rules against it in a lawsuit brought by Mead Data Central Inc. of Dayton, Ohio.

Mead Data contends that the car maker is illegally diluting the name of its Lexis legal information retrieval service.

Illingworth, who took control of the Lexus Division last month after Jim Perkins returned to General Motors Corp., said he expects a ruling from the New York court by the end of the month. If the auto maker loses, there will be no appeal to the Supreme Court, he added.

He said the timing of the launch of the Lexus line, consisting of two sedans, requires that a name be in place by the time the cars are delivered to showrooms this fall. The process of choosing another name has begun, he said, but no alternative name has been selected. He said that he knows of no settlement negotiations but that Toyota wants to resolve the case out of court.

Lexus plans to sell Japanese-made cars costing between $20,000 and $40,000 in the United States this fall. But before that happens, Illingworth said, he expects a decision on a battle with Mead Data.