Public interest groups and anti-smoking organizations won a small battle yesterday in the war against the legitimacy of filtered cigarettes when tobacco company Star Scientific Inc. announced it would stop labeling its products as "light" or "ultralight". A spokesperson for the Chester, VA manufacturer told health officials that Star would drop the terms from its Vegas brand of cigarettes and would assess whether to remove "light" and "ultralight" from its other brands. Class-action lawsuits alleging the terms mislead smokers have been filed in several states.