Well, the photophone was actually a much cooler device anyway. Experimental wireless transfer of human speech over 200 meters from a completely passive device using optical scattering? In 1880? Sweet! The receiver was active, but transmitter was not at all. Somewhat similar to modern UHF RFID technology.

Bell was actually a pretty awesome engineer largely motivated by wanting to help the impaired.

Well, at least Antonio Meucci's Globe Telephone Company was sued by the Bell Telephone Company for patent infringement. It was really a messy law suit where one question was whether Meucci had invented the electromagnetic telephone or "just" an acoustic one.