I don't particularly care for Coldplay, but they seem to have taken a short melody from a chorus and reworked it to make a starting point for their verses. Stylistically it's completely different.
The rules don't prevent simple-minded ripping off of a style. Otherwise things like Republica and Meredith Brooks would never have happened. They do seem to prevent taking a melody and doing something new with it.
And that is errant nonsense. That probably falls under fair use.
Why doesn't anyone sue Weird Al Jankovich? Most economists teach a theoretical framework that has been shown to be fundamentally useless. -- James K. Galbraith
