Looks like I have a different take on it.

For starters, I don't buy the "it's a common chord progression" argument because it doesn't account for the timing. The timing of the similar parts is EXACTLY the same. The video included below, which some of you have probably seen, does an excellent job of illustrating this by not only playing excerpts of both songs but by also mixing them together. When you do this, it sounds like Satch is playing a solo for the Coldplay song. The matching of both the melody and the timing seems to me to be two separate coincidences and on the probability scale this is too much for me to chalk up to coincidence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ofFw9DKu_I

Now, I agree that it's unlikely that Coldplay intentionally borrowed anything from Satch, but intention is irrelevant. George Harrison did not intentionally borrow the melody from The Chiffons' "He's So Fine" in the writing of "My Sweet Lord" and yet he was sued over it and he lost, the judge stating that he was guilty of "subconscious plagiarism". Whether or not any member of the band actually listens to Satriani is not the issue. It is well within the realm of possibility that one of them heard the song at some point and it stuck in his subconscious. Likely? Maybe not. Possible? Absolutely.

If I had to make a prediction, I see an out-of-court settlement in the future, which, to me, is an admission of guilt. If I knew for a fact that I were not guilty of something I'd never pay a dime to my accuser.

Call it schadenfraude if you will but I'm kind of glad this "controversy" is happening to Coldplay. They are the epitome of derivative (mostly of U2 and Radiohead).